Sunday, July 1, 2012

"Who Touched Me?"

Today's Gospel reading (Mark 5:21-43) was a really good reminder for me about how I live my life with God.  A woman afflicted with "hemorrhages" for 12 years (possibly what we today call endometrioisis) came up behind Jesus, convinced that if she could just touch the tassels on his garment (tzitzit, Num.15:38-39) she would be healed.  I was very struck by what came next:
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

There were a crowd of people in physical contact with Jesus, but only one person really "touched" him; and it was her faith that allowed her to.


It reminded me that there is a danger I need to be wary of, a fine line that always needs to be walked.  It's important to have fixed times of prayer throughout the day.  It's also important to be faithful to specific forms of prayer; for me that's Sunday Mass and the daily Rosary.  I do a lot of spontaneous prayer in addition to those, but those are the meat and potatoes of my spiritual life.  The daily Rosary ensures that I make time to meditate on Jesus' life in Scripture; I have a set time every day for God to speak to me through His Word.  Sometimes I receive incredible flashes of insight, but much of the time it is just thinking on the mysteries and trying not to get distracted.

So there is that, and it is good.  But I need to be careful that I do not let prayer become routine.  That doesn't mean that I break my commitment to the Rosary - or even worse Sunday Mass - but that I strive to always remain cognizant that I am in contact with the Living God!  It's faith in a Person - trusting in, clinging to, and relying on God in absolutely everything I think, say, and do - that allows me to "touch" Jesus, to receive the grace He wants to pour out.


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