(Homily for Sunday, 28 February 2009)

In today's Gospel, when the woman afflicted with haemorrhage saw Jesus, she told herself, "If only I could touch His clothing, I shall be well." That is a beautiful prayer we can make our own. Her words can be translated as "Lord, I wish I could touch You by my life. I wish I could move You by the way I live my life. Lord, I want to please You in my life. Even though I have my failings and blunders, You know that I love You. Make my life pleasing to You." God cannot be outdone in generosity. He saw the desire of her heart and so healed her of her malady. Her gesture moved His heart and so he asked, "Who touched My clothing?", which can be translated as "Who touched Me?"

It was Henri Nouwen who said that "When we honestly ask ourselves, which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find they are those who instead of giving us advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of confusion, who can stay with us in a moment of grief or bereavement and one who can face us with the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."How people touch our lives just by their reassuring presence. Isn't it true that with the best of friends, words need not be spoken?"

But how can we touch other people's lives if we are not in touch with ourselves? How can we inspire other people if we are not in touch with our woundedness and brokenness? Are we in touch with other people's complaints against us? On the other hand, how can we touch other people's lives if we are not also in touch with our talents and giftedness? No one among us can say that he has nothing to offer other people or share to his community.

In a recent interview, Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose-Driven Life", reflected on the fact that his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He noted how even though we are going through bad times in life, there is always something we can thank God for. And he also observed that even though things are so good in our life, there is always something bad we can work on in our life. St. Benedict, in his Rule for monks, legislated that when a guest arrives at the monastery gate, the porter should say, "A blessing." Whether the guest who arrives is poor or well-off, the monk should realize that a blessing has come to the monastery. And that is not only true for visitors to the monastery. In the family or community, each of us is a blessing to one another because everything is part of Divine Providence. In all that we go through in life, everything is a blessing. Everything is a mercy from God. "Not a leaf falls without being ordained by Divine Providence."(St. Catherine of Siena)

After Jesus realized that power got out of Him after the woman afflicted with haemorrhage touched his clothing, He inquired who it was that touched His garment. His disciples were surprised He asked such a thing since there were crowds hovering over Him wanting to touch Him. But Jesus was making a statement. He saw that even in a crowd there is one who can touch Him or move Him as God. When Jesus asked, "Who touched "Me?", He was in search for some among us who would touch Him with the kind of life we live. For the most part, our lives don't touch Him nor move His heart. It is because of the quality of our prayer and the quality of our love for God. We can say all the prayers we desire but if our lives are a far cry from our prayers then we deserve to hear Jesus'"words, "This people pay Me lip service and yet their hearts are far away from Me." In terms of our love for God, we see the quality of that love when we are put to the test, when storms of life come and seemingly all is dark. There is a boy who died at the young age of five. When he was three years old he suffered paralysis of the legs. The paralysis would spread to the upper part of his body. At the age of five, weeks before he died, his whole body was paralyzed and he had become blind. His mother was weeping, disconsolate with grief at the pain her son had to go through. The boy hearing of his mother's grief remarked, "Do not cry, Mommy. Even though my whole body is paralyzed, I still have a heart to love you." I hope that when we are going through the darkest of nights we can still say to God, "Even though I am going through this dark tunnel and I can't see the light, I still love You."