13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
“Talitha, Kum!” (Mk 5:41)
Here is a story of a young girl I knew, who died before time. When I was a young priest in a rural parish in Tanzania, I started a ministry to people who were sick and home-bound. Every Friday a lady-catechist would go to the district hospital, prepare a list of people who would wish to see a priest, and add their names to the list of those provided by the Small Christian Communities. We would then visit these people and minister to them according to their need.
One of those days, we came across a young lady at her home; she might have been 18 years old. Let us call her Neema! Neema was bed-ridden and spoke very faintly, but mentally quite alert. We engaged in a little conversation before I could minister to her. I enquired what was wrong with her, and she just pointed out to her abdomen. Not wanting to embarrass her I didn’t enquire any further. At one point during the conversation, Neema very faintly asked me, “Father, don’t you recognise me?” Not able to recall immediately given also that people appear different when they are bed-ridden I smiled rather awkwardly. Then Neema continued, “I am in your religious instruction class in school, in year 11 (Form IV of Tanzania).” Well, I recognised the cohort. Finally, we prayed with her and left.
On our way back, the lady-catechist continued the conversation: “Father, do you know what is wrong with Neema? Well, she was pregnant and she procured a back-street abortion. She developed an infection and now this is her situation. Seems quite serious.” This additional information disturbed me. I thought to myself: What is the use of all my religious instruction? Did it have any effect on Neema? It hadn’t prevented Neema from getting pregnant before marriage, nor did it prevent her from procuring an abortion, and here she is helplessly fighting for her life! The rest of the week my thoughts often returned to Neema, and I uttered a little prayer for her. I thought of also the boy, who made her pregnant and refused to take responsibility. May be he was in my religious instruction class as well!
The following Friday, the catechist returned with the list. I curiously perused through the list. Neema was not on the list. “What happened to Neema, is she well?” I asked the catechist. “Oh, sorry, Father. We buried her on Wednesday” (It was customary that usually funerals took place on the same day someone died and the catechist would preside over the funerals). Neema had died before time! The story of Neema was one of those powerful stories of my early pastoral ministry, and not the only one in my 28 years of priesthood. And to girls such as Neema, I hear Jesus calling out today, Talitha Kum!
Stories of two women
The gospel reading of today narrates to us two stories. Both, stories of women. One story is contained within another. Both are stories about women who are ‘dead’ in their own way. It is interesting to note that all the synoptic gospels have these two stories put together and narrate them in very similar words (Mt 9:18-25; Mk 5:22-43; Lk 8:41-56). The two women represent two different age groups: the younger one has died before time, at the onset of adolescence, and the cause of her death is unknown; the older woman is socially dead. Jesus raises both to life – new life.
Let us first focus on the older woman. Mark adds an important detail about the woman which Matthew and Luke prefer to omit: she “… had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it; in fact, she was getting worse (Mk 5:25-26).” There are many implications in such situations as per the teaching of the Book of Leviticus chapter 15:19-33. Given her condition of the hemorrhage for 12 years, she would have been physically weak. She was religiously ostracised since she could not have participated in worship – she could not enter the synagogue or the temple. She was socially isolated because she could not participate in any social events. May be even her husband left her because they could not touch each other. Moreover she was economically drained out since “she had spent all she had.” She was as good as dead!
The healing that she received from Jesus now re-establishes her humanity. She could sing as Mary did in the Gospel of Luke: “The Lord has looked upon the humiliation of his servant… For the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name. He has used the power of his arm… He has raised high the lowly… He has filled the starving with good things… He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love” (Lk 1: 46-55). This is a hymn that many women could sing even today.
The humane compassion of Jesus
At the heart of raising these women to life and restoring their humanity is the humane compassion of Jesus. In both cases, there is touching involved. In both cases, that touching was a taboo-broken. The bleeding woman was not supposed to touch anyone; she would render unclean everything that she touched. But that was a special touch even for Jesus. In that touch her faith is made tangible, and Jesus appreciates it: “My daughter,” he said, “your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free of your complaint” (Mk 5:34).
In the second case, Jesus breaks the taboo by touching a dead child. Touching the dead body would have rendered him unclean. He could not have participated in social interaction without having a bath following such a contact with the dead body. He could have worked the miracle just by uttering a word. But touching was necessary to re-establish the humanity of the child, at the risk of Jesus being impure. And finally, here is yet another powerful expression of Jesus’s humanity: he told them to give her something to eat.
The role of the Church today
Today the believing community – we, the Church – have the responsibility to be channels of that humane compassion of Jesus, especially to women. How can the Church accompany young people like Neema so that they don’t die before time? How can we ensure the dignity of women within the Church today? Rather than justifying the unfair traditions within the Church through our theologising, should we not just face the reality and act as Jesus did, even if it means breaking some age-old taboos?
For sure, in this regard we are living through very promising times in the Church and society. Thanks to Pope Francis there is a greater expression of courage for soul-searching within the Church. However are we willing to be open to the Spirit that the Pope invites us to respond to?
Penitential Rite: Forgive us for the sins committed against women!
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
by male domination all over the world,
and in the known history of humankind:
for inventing customs & rituals to maintain the status quo,
for not giving women equal opportunity in education and work,
in decision making and leadership.
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
in the mass media:
for making use of them as advertising objects to sell our products,
for not treating their bodies with dignity and respect,
for propagating male structures and values in the media.
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
in the institution of marriage and family:
for refusing them the right to choose their marriage partners,
for denying them of their right to pleasure in conjugal love,
for using them as sex objects…
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
by reducing them to mere property and possession:
for selling and buying them
in the market of marriage by our dowry systems,
for considering women as a mere work force,
for leaving all the menial jobs to them,
for overloading them with household work,
for inventing numerous taboos to perpetuate this inequality.
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
in Christianity:
for denying them equal opportunity
in church leadership and service,
for imposing masculine structures
on women religious orders.
Lord,
we ask your forgiveness for the sins committed against women…
in not being grateful to women:
our own mothers and sisters who have helped us grow,
our teachers and nuns who taught us,
our househelps, bar tenders, receptionists and secretaries,
for not appreciating their role in our lives.
Above all, Lord,
we ask your forgiveness…
for equating gender-difference with inequality,
for mistaking equality with sameness,
for not accepting that we can be different yet equal,
for not accepting the fact of complementarity.[1]
[1] These invocations could be used for penitential rite during Eucharist celebration. Each of these invocations could be accompanied by a male person coming up to wash his hands, assisted by women, or accompanied by any other appropriate symbolic act.