Jesus – the Walking Mercy - Mk 5:21-43
We can watch Jesus – the Walking Mercy, how in his coming to us he crosses the borders and allows people to cross it. Led by the synagogue supervisor to his dying daughter, he is not stopped at the news of the girl's death but helps her father to trust against all circumstances. In the house of Jairus, he takes the hand of the deceased, although touching the corpse has resulted in ritual uncleanness lasting a week (cf. Numbers 19:11). And it turns out that the barrier of death is not an obstacle to the life that dwells in him (cf. Jn. 5:26), and that our contamination not only does not affect him but is removed in contact with him.
The Holy Spirit discreetly prompts this intuition to a woman suffering from chronic bleeding, and therefore also unclean, practically constantly - because the ritual of uncleanness as a result of menstruation lasted a week, and as a result of every other bleeding “for the entire time of blood loss” and seven days after it ceased (cf. Lev 15:19, 25:28). So, it seems that the sick women have been rather excluded from religious and social life for twelve years, and at that the moment she should not only touch Jesus, but even enter a dense crowd. Her reaching for Mercy is done against the rules, against religious regulations - and God blesses this crossing of borders.
The Good News of God (the Gospel), which Jesus expresses with his whole being, is that Mercy knows no bounds, that Grace - to use Pope Francis' phrase - “works constantly beyond any possible control” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, point 112). According to this Good News, "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers (...), nor that which is high, nor that which is deep (...) will not be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (cf. Rom 8: 38-39). We can perhaps add: neither humanly irreversible events nor getting stuck in "religiously incorrect" situations (for example non-sacramental marriage) prevent the humble heart from touching (as prompted by the Spirit to the humble heart) generous Mercy, unlimited Grace, plentiful Redemption. Because “for with the LORD is mercy, with him is plenteous redemption” (cf. Ps. 130: 7).
Until Tomorrow
fr. george