In the gospel Jesus cures two women who are ill. One of them is a twelve year old girl who is variously described in the gospel as very ill, asleep and dead. Jesus wakes her up and lets her begin her adult life (twelve years old was marrying age in her culture). The other woman has suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and has wasted time and money seeing doctors. She believes Jesus can cure her, but she is afraid to ask him so she approaches him from behind and touches his cloak. Jesus knows he has cured someone because he has felt power go out of him. He asks who it is and the woman is forced to own up, and Jesus praises her faith and appreciates her.
The idea that Jesus works a miracle without knowing it is interesting. It suggests that Jesus is at our disposal; we can take our problems to him and he will help us with them. Jesus is, perhaps, most available to us in holy communion; he gives us himself to help us with our needs and problems. And Jesus wants to do this. I watched a news item on television last week where a woman was being interviewed about her baby being taken from her for adoption because she wasn`t married. She said to the interviewer I didn`t really have a life. Jesus wants us to have a life.
Kind Regards.
Fr Maurice