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| Photo Created by: James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot |
A Reflection
on Mark 5:21-43 (St. Blaise)
Today's Gospel
shows us two people desperate for Jesus's touch: Jairus, a synagogue official
whose daughter is dying, and a woman who has suffered bleeding for twelve
years. What's remarkable is how both of them had to push through barriers to
reach Him. Jairus had to humble himself publicly, falling at Jesus's feet
before a crowd, risking his reputation to beg for his daughter's life. The
unnamed woman had to break social rules; her condition made her ritually
unclean, yet she pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus's cloak. Both
understood something profound: that being near Jesus, touching Him, asking Him
directly, was worth any cost or risk. They teach us that faith isn't passive
waiting; it's active reaching. On this feast of St. Blaise, when we ask for the
blessing of our throats, we're doing the same thing, physically presenting
ourselves to receive Jesus's healing through His Church, believing that His
power works through these sacred moments.
The Rosary helps us understand this mystery of reaching out and touching Jesus.
When we pray the Hail Marys, we're like that woman in the crowd; we're reaching
through time itself to touch the hem of Jesus's garment. Every bead is an act
of faith similar to theirs: we believe that by calling on Mary, by repeating
these prayers with humble persistence, our Blessed Mother is interceding for us.
The woman touched Jesus's cloak and felt healing flow into her body. We touch
these beads and trust that grace flows into our souls. These sacred Beads of
Joy are a physical way for us to reach out to Jesus through His mother, just as
the woman reached through the crowd to touch His garment.
Notice how Jesus responded to both seekers. To the woman, He said,
"Daughter, your faith has saved you." To Jairus, even after hearing
his daughter had died, Jesus said, "Do not be afraid; just have
faith." Then He took the girl's hand and said, "Talitha koum", Little
girl, arise. Jesus doesn't just heal from a distance; He makes personal
contact. He stops for the woman when He feels power go out from Him. He takes
the dead girl by the hand. He speaks tenderly to both. This is what we
encounter in the Rosary too, not a distant God, but one who responds to our
touch, our persistence, our faith. When we meditate on the mysteries of Jesus's
life while praying the Rosary, we're doing what Jairus and the woman did: we're
bringing our needs, our desperation, our hope directly to Him. We're saying,
like them, "If I can just reach You, everything will change."
St. Blaise
offered healing through his prayers, and the Church continues his ministry
today through the blessing of throats. It's another reminder that Jesus works
through physical means, through touch, through blessed objects, through the
prayers of saints, through the repetition of the Rosary. The woman was healed
by touching Jesus's cloak. Jairus's daughter was raised by Jesus, taking her
hand. We're healed and strengthened by presenting our throats for blessing, by
letting rosary beads slip through our fingers, by receiving the Eucharist on
our tongues. God could work invisibly, but He chooses to meet us in our
physical reality because He loves our humanity. He became human so we could
touch Him, and He remains touchable through His Church and the Sacraments. The
question for us is the same one Jesus posed to Jairus: Will we have faith even
when everything looks hopeless? Will we keep reaching out?
Questions to consider:
·
What
barriers, fear, shame, doubts, busyness, keep me from reaching out to Jesus as
desperately as the woman and Jairus did?
·
Do
I pray the Rosary with the same confidence that touching Jesus (through Mary's
intercession) will actually change things, or have I let it become merely
routine?
·
When
has Jesus asked me, like He asked Jairus, to "not be afraid; just have
faith" in a situation that seemed dead or hopeless?
·
How
can I approach God's altar, the blessing of throats, holy water, praying the
Rosary, and receiving the Eucharist, with greater reverence and expectation of
encountering Jesus's real power?
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
