June 30, 2021
Editor’s note: This homily for June 27, 2021, inspired by Mark 5:21-34, was originally published on Fr. Mark-David’s Facebook page.
A child cannot sit on her lap.
She cannot hug a friend.
She cannot embrace a man.
She cannot attend a party.
She cannot join the community at prayer.
She is excluded from family life.
Because she has a biological condition
“a flow of blood”
That the biology of Leviticus 15:19, judges to be “unclean”
She has spent twelve years of her life, “unclean”
For twelve years she has been condemned to isolation
because of something she cannot change.
And oh, she has tried to change, and failed.
Hearing that Jesus could make a difference
She trails him, in the back of the crowd, to be sure,
If someone saw her, recognized her for who she was
They would expel her, excommunicate her.
She is willing to take that risk.
“Who touched me?”
Jesus asks the crowd jostling him on every side, at every step.
“Who touched me?”
There are times in life when you meet a stranger
Who changes your life
A chance encounter, with someone
You don’t know their name nor they yours,
But you will never be the same-either of you.
Power-energy-force-something has flashed
between you two, you feel it.
Jesus felt it.
Jesus felt her.
Felt her touching his robe, his soul.
“Who touched me?”
This time she will not slink away
Get lost in the crowd
stay on the outskirts of her life.
She comes out
Out with the story of her life
Out with who she is, with what she has suffered
Suffered from the “flow of blood”
Suffered by people’s reaction, exclusion, rejection.
She comes out and tells him everything.
Jesus, touched, touches back,
“Daughter”-a term of belonging, of affection
“Daughter-your faith has saved you.”
Your determination not to be alone
Has saved you. Go in Peace.
In forty-two years of priesting
I have listened to stories of people excluded
Shunted aside, shunned because of who they are.
Other people, mothers, fathers, friends
People with whom they have prayed-
Cited a verse of scripture from a biologically ignorant time
And excluded them from the fullness of life
And at times, they too, learned to hate themselves.
What has saved them, what has kept them alive
Is the hope, the faith, the trust,
That if no one else will touch them, God will
Touch them, hold them, give them peace
Courageously they reach out touching the hem of God’s garment
Looking for peace.
Contemporary examples of this fearless woman surround us.
In the June of pride month the LGBTQ
Daughters and sons, considered unclean by so many
come out and reach to Jesus.
In the month of Juneteenth,
African American daughters and sons
Excluded by so many Christians because of their skin
Come out and reach to Jesus
Whose skin is more like theirs than mine.
Asian Americans, once again, for no other reason
than their heritage, are declared unclean
unwelcome, responsible for covid-19-
Come out and refuse to take the blame.
Daughters, women, round the world,
Who for no reason other than their “flow of blood”
Are seen, and treated, as less, and paid, less
Come out-claiming the right to search for happiness.
Oh, there are many people we try to keep from touching Jesus
We judge them unclean,
unworthy of even the hem of Jesus’ garment.
Try as we might to keep them away
Jesus feels their touch.
Jesus feels their faith
Jesus feels their trust
And touches them with God’s love.
In the gospel, this woman is anonymous
But her name is our name
Whenever we have the courage to reach through
The judgement and exclusion erected to keep us
From touching Jesus
whose touch encourages us
to hold fast to the God of love
who made us, touches us, heals us, puts our soul at peace,
Calling us: my daughter, my son.
Amen.