Word to the Wise
Monday, February 5, 2018 - Monday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13 and Mark 6:53-56]MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2018. ST. AGATHA, virgin and martyr [1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 and Mark 6:53-56] Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. [Mark] Recently I mentioned here the story of the lady in the vestibule of the church who would not go any further inside. I have referred to her and many others like her as "tassel-touchers." I do so not in a derogatory way but as a reference to the passage from the Gospel According to Mark that I quoted above. The sick people in the marketplaces knew only that Jesus could heal. They had no other way of knowing about him under the circumstances. The fortunate thing is that there were others who could bring the sick persons and get them where they could touch that tassel of Jesus' cloak! That's as close as they could get and we are told it was sufficient. Elsewhere in this same gospel we have the story of the lady in the crowd who just touched the hem of Jesus' cloak and that was sufficient. It may be faith the size of the mustard seed, but Jesus recognizes it for what it is. It is this kind of faith teamed with the stronger faith of a disciple/missionary that can bring a person to Christ, and to the Church as a "field hospital for the sick and wounded," as Pope Francis says. We may not be able to bring them any closer than the tassel passing by, but Jesus will recognize their faith. We can hope that once healed, they will follow. As St. Teresa of Calcutta said, "God has not called us to be successful: God has called us to be faithful." If we count complete conversion as the only success, we will leave an awful lot of sick and wounded out in the field. AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
120 ms
4
