Are we to think like the 12 Years' Hemorrhage Woman of Mark 5?

[ethereality]

Does God want us to believe that we’ll be healed the next time we receive the Eucharist?

Note verse 28 of Mark 5:

She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”

The NABRE even includes the footnote,

Both in the case of Jairus and his daughter (Mk 5:23) and in the case of the hemorrhage victim, the inner conviction that physical contact (Mk 5:30) accompanied by faith in Jesus’ saving power could effect a cure was rewarded.

I want to be healed in this way, and I don’t want to doubt, but I have believed this in the past, and have been disappointed not only by the lack of healing, but by the lack of experiencing God’s presence (it appeared only a bread wafer). If God doesn’t want us to believe in this way, believing it will occur at a particular event where God is supposed to be present (e.g. touching Jesus’ Body during the Eucharist), then why is this detail included in the passage? What is the Holy Spirit telling us here? Given your explanation, how do we know it is the Holy Spirit’s message and not a human’s message that you happen to like?

 

[Gorgias]

Does God want us to believe that we’ll be healed the next time we receive the Eucharist?

If God doesn’t want us to believe in this way, believing it will occur at a particular event where God is supposed to be present (e.g. touching Jesus’ Body during the Eucharist), then why is this detail included in the passage?

No… this passage isn’t an assurance that physical contact with Jesus will always bring magical healing.

In a very real sense, it’s an indication that seeking healing for healing’s sake is the wrong approach to Jesus. Rather, we should approach Him purely out of faith. After all, the woman wasn’t healed through touch; Jesus told her that her faith saved her.

I … have been disappointed … by the lack of experiencing God’s presence (it appeared only a bread wafer).

Where in the Bible does it tell you that you’d magically “experience God’s presence” through reception of the Eucharist? Where does it tell you that you’d (empirically?) perceive anything other than “a bread wafer”?

What is the Holy Spirit telling us here? Given your explanation, how do we know it is the Holy Spirit’s message and not a human’s message that you happen to like?

I think that God’s message is found in the way that Mark was inspired to tell the story: it’s not just about the healing of a little girl. It’s about the fact that there’s power in Jesus, and that power is found in unconditional faith in Him. Our faith is not to be found in healings or in physical/emotional experiences of the Eucharist: it’s to be found in faith in the person of Jesus Himself. Jairus witnessed the healing of his daughter when, in defiance of the crowd’s assertions that it was all over and done with, he nevertheless believed when Jesus told him not to fear, but believe. Jairus believed in Jesus when there was no longer any physical/natural reason to do so; and, in believing in Him, Jairus was rewarded by the raising of his daughter. Is this an indication that every authentic belief in Jesus results in such rewards? No, of course not. However, it’s an indication that every authentic belief in Jesus leads to being raised to eternal life.

How do I know that this is the message of God and not the ‘gospel according to Gorgias’? Because it’s what the Church that Jesus founded teaches us…

 

[Dorothy]

It is my experience that Jesus heals me, in the Eucharist, according to what kind of healing I need. His decision is best. I need to work on receiving in deeper faith in His Real Presence and Love.

Of course we can ask, but allow Him to decide.

 

[St_Francis]

The reality is that lack of healing does *not *indicate a lack of faith or that you are “doing it wrong.” It may simply indicate that God wants you to bear this cross for a while longer or maybe even til you die. Remember Christ’s plea in the Garden: Abba, let this cup pass from my lips, but They will, not Mine, be done," and what happened after that.

Have faith that God *can *heal you, offer up your suffering, and keep working on your Christian living.

 

[Gorgias]

The reality is that lack of healing does *not *indicate a lack of faith

Correct; a ‘lack of healing’ doesn’t, per se, prove ‘lack of faith’. It’s one of the possibilities, of course, but not the only one, and not even necessarily the most likely one…

 

[InNomineDomini]

If God doesn’t want us to believe in this way … then why is this detail included in the passage?

We could list any number of reasons, one of which might simply be to recount a supernatural healing that occurred because of Christ, and the implications of this, and what they tell us about who He is. This might very well be more about Him than about us.

Moreover, while God may give certain individuals a very profound sense of His presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament—St. John Paul II comes to mind—He doesn’t do this for everyone. One reason is simply that He doesn’t give His graces equally to all.

Furthermore, having faith is itself a grace. No one has it unless God gives it to them; and, like above, He doesn’t give this gift equally to all, although everyone has the opportunity to access it, and to thereby be saved.

So what do we do? We pray, and we ask for the intercession of those who are holier than we. We may have spent our whole lives resisting God’s grace, we may have squandered graces a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and so on. It may have only been grace *k *which finally even gave us the ability to believe in God in the first place, and we may have only been given it because someone prayed for us.

After we resist graces for so long, God, in simple justice, may withdraw His graces from us entirely. Throwing things out constantly results in those things being taken away. This is where intercession comes in to play.

For everything that you want in the spiritual life, you need grace. Therefore, never stop asking God, and never stop asking others to pray for you.

 

[TimothyH]

Jews were commanded to wear twisted cords called tzitziyot (pronounced zee-zee-yot, plural) on the four corners of their garment. The cords had 613 braids or knots to remind them of God’s 613 commandments.

***The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel, and bid them to make tassels on the corners of their garments *throughout their generations, and to put upon the tassel of each corner a cord of blue; and it shall be to you a tassel to look upon and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to go after wantonly. (Numbers 15:37-39)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzit

Jewish men, including Jesus, would have worn an outer tunic with these four tassels - what are sometimes referred to in the New Testament as “fringes” or 'hem" of the garment. Jewish tradition held that the tzitziyot of the messiah’s garment would have healing power.

But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:2)

The Hebrew word used for wings refers to the fringe of a bird’s wing. The fringe, hem or tzitziyot of Jesus’ outer garment is what the woman touched.

She had faith that he was the messiah.

-Tim-

 

[ethereality]

The reality is that lack of healing does *not *indicate a lack of faith or that you are “doing it wrong.” It may simply indicate that God wants you to bear this cross for a while longer or maybe even til you die. Remember Christ’s plea in the Garden: Abba, let this cup pass from my lips, but They will, not Mine, be done," and what happened after that.

Have faith that God *can *heal you, offer up your suffering, and keep working on your Christian living.

The more plausible explanation is that God does not exist, and that neither do miracles. This would explain suffering, why the reports of miracles are always unverifiable, and why healing events are so rare (i.e. they are caused by yet-unknown natural causes).

For everything that you want in the spiritual life, you need grace. Therefore, never stop asking God, and never stop asking others to pray for you.

God knows what I need before I ask, so why must I “never stop asking God”? St. Paul indicates he asked the Lord only three times, though perhaps he stopped because God answered him. If you agree with others who attribute the Lord’s response to St. Paul to me, that “perhaps God’s grace is sufficient for you,” then why should I ask Him more than three times? Please clarify and explain to me the meaning of your comment here. What is the purpose of asking God constantly for something He has hitherto not given me? I’ve estimated that I’ve already asked God 500 times to heal me. It appears to be false hope to continue believing that He will – and I am left in bewilderment at not knowing how else to understand the Bible passages that led me to think He would heal me.