“As he was speaking these things unto them, behold a certain ruler came up, and adored him, saying: ‘Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.’ And Jesus rising up followed him, with his disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself: ‘If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed.’ But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: ‘Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.’ And the woman was made whole from that hour.”
Consider the ceaselessness of love! As Jesus teaches the ways of love to the disciples of John, others come to Him, that love may display its wonders, and He immediately goes. “But which of you, having a servant ploughing, or feeding cattle, will say to him, when he is come from the field: ‘Immediately go, sit down to meat:’ and will not rather say to him: ‘Make ready my supper, and gird thyself, and serve me, whilst I eat and drink, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink’” (Luke 17:7-8); such is the labor of love. The coming of Jairus is of note, because it shows that all walks of life are drawn to the love of Jesus, for while the chief religious are Jesus’ primary opposition throughout the Gospels, there are also some that come to Him, such as this ruler, Nicodemus: “And there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night” (John 3:1-2), and Joseph of Arimathea. This shows that authority, position, and such things do not hinder love, when exercised with love and wisdom: “Love the light of wisdom, all ye that bear rule over peoples” (Wisdom 6:23). Compare, however, this Jairus with the centurion previously discussed. The centurion presents his matter before Jesus and trusts Him, whereas Jairus, like Naaman the Syrian, needed sight, presence, and touch: “Naaman was angry and went away, saying: ‘I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me’” (4 Kings 5:11). Jesus, however, reaches down to his faith and gives him and his daughter what they need to be in spiritual health. So too, if your spirit is faint: “When my spirit failed me, then thou knewest my paths” (Psalm 141:4), and you are in need of Jesus giving you tangible expressions of His love, He will rise up in haste to give them to you: “For winter is not past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land” (Canticle 2:11-12), but if He wants to strengthen you with aridity, darkness, and difficulty, know that this is a medicine served to you with love, like a loving father coaching his child to push himself a bit harder, knowing that the fruits of this will be a rich treasure: “Fathers… bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4); “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:24). So too can it be said that when someone bids you to something, go with them, that everyone may find a compassionate and giving heart in you: “Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away” (Matthew 5:42), and if this is impossible, leave them more loved than when you found them, so that they may be just as happy as if they had received what they wanted from you. A woman then comes to Jesus, being unclean and exiled from society, with everything she touches becoming ritually unclean: “The woman that hath an issue of blood many days… shall be unclean… Every bed on which she sleepeth, and every vessel on which she sitteth, shall be defiled. Whosoever toucheth them shall wash his clothes: and himself being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening” (Leviticus 15:25-27). This represents a heart that is hemorrhaging, so broken and needing love, that it spends itself on many passions and attempts at finding love: “And had suffered many things from many physicians; and had spent all that she had, and was nothing the better, but rather worse” (Mark 5:26). She seeks just a touch of His garment, and she shall be healed, and here there is shown what the smallest little act of love can do to someone. There may be someone you encounter whose heart is hemorrhaging, and everything they do becomes sinful, that just needs some little sign of acceptance, one little light in the dark that says, “I love you,” and the impact can transform their life: “And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up, and forthwith his feet and soles received strength. And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and went in with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:7-8). The woman then feared she made Jesus unclean, which He alleviates by telling her to be of good heart, for the one that loves purely is not stained by the world and poor love: “Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world” (James 1:27); “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), but has great compassion on those who do not yet possess this same love: “And in fine, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble” (1 Peter 3:8). The essence, Theophila, is that as a bearer of Christ’s presence of love in this world, the hem of your garment is the seemingly smallest acts of love that you do, the things that seem inconsequential but are the outward acts of love with which you are clothed: “Myrrh and stacte and cassia perfume thy garments” (Psalm 44:9). St. John exhorts: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17); but all need love, which you possess in Jesus Christ: “He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38). Therefore, when every act you do is love, those that encounter you that have a bleeding, unclean heart that is grasping for love can find a hem in you, whereby you avail yourself to being the vessel through which Jesus can love them: “Know you not your own selves, that Christ Jesus is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Finally, if you find yourself in a place of sin, reach out with faith to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, reaching for His own love through the many devotions available to you: “The king hath brought me into his storerooms” (Canticle 1:3) and the reading of Sacred Scripture, for in this you will find the beautiful, loving words of God expressed to you: “Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David” (Isaias 55:3), for it is love that drives out sin, and He will give this same love in abundance: “Jesus stood and cried, saying: ‘If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink’” (John 7:37).