Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – June 30, 2024
“Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live,” says Jairus to the one at the center of the crowd’s attention. Jesus will take his dead daughter’s hand and restore her to life with a brief saving touch.
On the other hand, a woman who for years had endured the groping of many doctors still could not be healed by them. The feel of the crowd pressing in about her was almost as invasive and impersonal. They, too, overlooked her pain although she was right there, close enough to touch.
Are we present to those who are hurting, near enough to touch their grief, impressing the balm of God’s love upon their wounds?
There are different qualities of presence and contact going on in these various Gospel scenes. Jesus could have healed the child by speaking a word from afar, but Jairus needed him to see his family’s grief and hear their weeping. The woman with hemorrhages would have been satisfied with a passing anonymous brush of his garment. But Jesus desired more—the intimacy of seeing, knowing, and connecting with the person behind that fleeting encounter.
How often do those most hurting among us remain unnoticed even when they are right there next to us? They may hear our words, sing our songs, and be present at our meetings and churches. But are we present to them, near enough to touch their grief, impressing the balm of God’s love upon their wounds?
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