HOMILY FOR 14TH MONDAY OF ORDINARY TIME: YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “COURAGE, DAUGHTER! YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU.”
BY: Bishop Anthony Ewherido
The faith of the woman with the bleeding continues to challenge me. It takes such bold and blind faith to accomplish great outcomes. I often ask myself: How many people touched Jesus that day? How many were touched in return by Jesus because of their faith? In Mark’s version of this episode, when Jesus asked: “who touched me?”
ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY FOR 14TH MONDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
His disciples quarried his question because so many milled around him. He ignored their quarry because he knew that power left him. One person had touched him with faith, determination and intent. He found her out and completed the healing process. Don’t we touch Jesus daily? How effective are the contacts and encounters that we make with Jesus? We need to move from just contact to encounters with the Lord. We need to do more in our preparations for such encounters with the Lord. We make efforts to touch Jesus when we pray, at every Eucharistic encounter, when we read the scriptures, and on other occasions. For these efforts to be fruitful, we need to get rid of distractions and hone our focus, just like the woman in the gospel. We need to be single-minded and trust blindly. The same kind of faith that Jairus had while bringing Jesus to his house to raise his dead daughter. That is the kind of faith that Jacob manifested in the first reading, where his encounter with God was in a dream. We are told that he built an altar on that place of encounter to worship God and named it Bethel; “house of God.” Encounters established God’s presence amongst us. May such presence mark our daily encounters with the Lord, especially in the Eucharist. Today’s Psalm (91) is recommended for your nightly prayer for God’s loving care and protection.
Lord, touch our pain and brokenness and raise us up. Amen.
FOR A SIMILAR HOMILY, CLICK HERE >>>>>