Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 324

She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.

Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

One of the handier tools in Saint Mark's theological kit was the "sandwich." He begins one story, (the bottom piece of bread), tells a second unrelated story (the middle piece), and then finishes the first story (the top piece.) The stories may be considered separately since they are both complete, but we should notice and reflect upon their similarities.

In today's gospel, the Church has offered the largest of his theological sandwiches. It concerns Jesus and two afflicted women. One is very young, but not so young in that culture and time that her family would not consider her marriage prospects. The other woman is elderly, past the age of child-bearing but suffering menstrual pain. The child is dying when we first hear of her, and then pronounced dead. The woman is dead to society in that her condition renders her ritually unclean and permanently ostracized. She has, however, in her solitude and desperation, become rather bold.

The first, obvious link between these two stories is gender. In a stratified society dominated by men, women were discounted. Their primary assets in a world of men were their fertility and their sexual attractiveness. Clever, well-placed women might garner some power in such a world but that was neither expected nor desired.  Most women had to play the hand they were dealt, in an unbalanced game of unequal competition. As we consider this story from the first century, we can admit that, though much has changed, more remains the same.

These combined stories is the Evangelist's statement about Jesus' compassion for women; and that fits well into the ancient prophetic tradition: God's preference for the lowly, the despised, and overlooked. It also belongs in the theological tradition of kenosis, the humility of God. Jesus' attention to both women -- he goes out of the way for each of them -- is a prophetic statement about Jewish society and our contemporary human society. Until our structures and our behavior honors the dignity and worth of women and girls, our society is profoundly ungodlike, misguided, and tragically flawed. Founded upon the shifting sands of injustice, it cannot expect to stand before the leveling storms of the Holy Spirit.

In both stories, Jesus teaches about faith. First he tells the woman, "Your faith has healed you." and then he reassures the distressed father, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” In another place, Saint Mark makes an astonishing remark: ​"...he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith." (Mark 6:5) 

If we suppose, "He is God, he can do anything he wants!" we miss the point altogether. That is not our God; and to speak of the Lord in that manner insults everything we know about him.

Faith is a readiness to welcome and receive the Lord who comes to us. This eager openness is not passive; it seeks the Lord as Jairus sought the Lord, and as the woman pushed her way into the crowd. Faced with adversity, it does not back down. The woman readily admitted it was she who touched him; and Jairus did not give up upon learning his daughter had died. 

Faith is an active expectancy before God, a persistent in-your-face readiness to receive mercy in whatever form it's needed. Whether it be healing, forgiveness, or deliverance we ask for and expect God's intervention. And when the Spirit says in response, "Do this!" we do it. We may be told to approach human authorities with our petition, as Queen Esther, risked her life and pleaded with the emperor. Or to invade the enemy camp as Judith did. 

Faith is an active passivity, and a passive activity. If the Lord is the hand, we are his glove, compliant and available. We might be told just to stand aside and watch, as Jehoshaphat watched his enemies fall on each other. Or we might march into combat as Abraham fought the four kings. 

In the long history of faith, since Abraham to the present day, there are innumerable stories of how the Holy Spirit directed the faithful in many different ways. We can be sure none of those ways were sinful, although they might conflict with someone's notions of custom and etiquette.

And with each day we ask the Lord to guide us in the way of faith.