Gospel Reflection: Healing

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Today’s Gospel: Mark 5:21-43
Today’s gospel is familiar to most of us: the healing of Jairus’s daughter as well as the woman who suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve long years. As Jesus made His way to the house of Jairus, people pressed in on Him from every side, but only one woman touched Christ, drawing healing power from Him. This woman was desperate to be healed. I don’t think she was the only one who believed that Jesus was capable of healing her. I mean, the entire crowd was excited, following Him, hoping to witness yet another miracle at Jairus’s house. No it wasn’t simply faith that drew healing power from Christ, it was the woman’s desperation.
Desperation is the key to change, to opening our hearts to receive anything from God. Only when I am desperate, only when I am fed up with myself as I continue to suffer day after day without changing wounded emotions, a sick body, and a tired mind, only then am I really willing to receive healing. It seems that I first must hit bottom, before I will to let go of the familiar, even when the familiar is sickness.

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