Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
In his miracle described in today’s Gospel Jesus shows us something about how he reacts to the weak, the wounded and the suffering in our world today. And yes, even about us, who may have experienced those things, which in the first reading, cause St. Paul to blush and “holiness forbids” mention. But what Jesus shows us is this: how attentive he is to those who suffer from whatever is painful, even past sins.
Reflect how he singled out, from all those who were hemming him in, an unfortunate woman who suffered from a crippling malady. She didn’t approach him; he approached her. For eighteen years she suffered and now did not ask for a cure. Perhaps her sufferings had drained her of hope. But Jesus saw her. He laid his hand on her and she was cured. Praying means allowing ourselves to be looked at by Jesus, with all of our disabilities and flaws.
It means asking him, who so graciously looks upon us, to drain from us those attitudes that characterized the chief of the synagogue. He looked but did not really see the crippled, the wounded, the weak who lived without hope, who did not know where or how to look for healing – like refugees from the Islamic State today, like the living dead close to home.