February 4, 2020

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings for Today

“If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Mark 5:28-29

These are the thoughts and experience of the woman who had suffered greatly for twelve years with hemorrhages. She sought out many doctors and had spent all she had in an attempt to be healed. Sadly, nothing worked.

It’s possible that God permitted her suffering to continue all those years so that she would be given this particular opportunity to manifest her faith for all to see. It’s interesting that this passage actually reveals her interior thinking as she approaches Jesus. “If I but touch his clothes…” This interior thinking is a beautiful illustration of faith.

How would she have known that she would be healed? What was it that led her to believe this with such clarity and conviction? Why, after spending twelve years working with every doctor she could come by would she suddenly realize that all she needed to do is to touch Jesus’ clothes in order to be healed? The answer is simple. Because she was given the gift of faith.

This illustration of her faith reveals that faith is a supernatural knowledge of something that only God can reveal. In other words, she knew she would be healed, and her knowledge of this healing came to her as a gift imparted by God. Once imparted, she had to act on this knowledge and, in so doing, she gave a wonderful witness to all who would read her story.

Her life, and in particular this experience, should challenge us all to realize that God also speaks profound truths to us, if we only listen. He is constantly speaking and revealing the depth of His love to us, calling us to enter into a life of manifest faith. He wants our own faith to not only be the foundation of our lives, but also to be a powerful witness to others.

Reflect, today, upon the interior conviction of faith that this woman had. She knew God would heal her because she allowed herself to hear Him speak. Reflect upon your own interior attentiveness to the voice of God and try to be open to the same depth of faith witnessed by this holy woman.

Lord, I love You and I desire to know You and to hear You speak to me each and every day. Please increase my faith so that I may know You and Your will for my life. Please use me as You wish to be a witness of faith for others. Jesus, I trust in You.

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