10 minutes wih Jesus are group of Catholic priests who share friendship with Jesus, plus keenness to help young people of all ages to learn the art of loving Jesus and speaking to Him. You can find them in WhatsApp, Spotify, Ivoox, Telegram, Goggle Podcasts and Apple Podcast. Every saturday, we are going to share one meditation by 10 minutes with Jesus. Enjoy it.
My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence, I beg your pardon for my sins, and thegrace to make this time or prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, myFather and Lord, my guardian angel intercedefor me.
Lord’s availability
One of the things that always struck me in the Gospel, is our Lord’s availability to people, andespecially perhaps, his availability to crowds. In our days we are kind of sensitive to this because we are being encouraged of course, which is prudent and good, to practice this socialdistancing, to keep our distance from other people, certainly our distance from great crowds. But it’s interesting by contrast, to see our Lord who, of course, did not live during a time of pandemic, but to see our Lord let himself be approached by crowds, let himself almost be swallowed up by crowds, let himself in a particular way be touched by all sorts of different people. We read this in the Gospel of Mark for example, in Mark’s fifth chapter, when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him and hewas by the sea, we could picture ourselves there, in the scene by the sea, and Jesus arrives and we are part of the crowd that is waiting for him, part of the crowd that tries to press in on him, to get a better look at him, to hear his words better, perhaps, even to touch him to be healed by him; then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly “my little daughter is at the point of death, come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live,” so he went with him.
A great act of faith
Here we see a great act of faith, a great sign of faith, on the part of this leader of the synagogue, Jairus, he says “come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” So, Jairus has this faith that, if Jesus shows up andparticularly, if he shows up and touches her, if he lays his hands on his daughter, she will be healed. Immediately, in the same chapter we see another example of this faith, this faith in the healing touch of Jesus. A large crowd followed him and pressed in on him, here again we see thisavailability of Jesus to the crowd, he does not hide himself, he does not distance himself, he lets himself be pressed in upon. Now, there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years, she had endured much under manyphysicians, that had spent all that shehad, and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said “if I but touch his clothes, I will be made well,” and here again what a beautiful example of faith in our Lord’s healing power, of faith in our Lord’s willingness and his ability to help, to help her situation,“if I but touch his clothes I will be made well” and we just heard that the crowd was large, and that the crowd was pressing in on him, and so this woman had to make an effort, we can kind of imagine her elbowing her way in between people, squeezing between people in the crowd, reaching out her hand,trying to touchJesus, saying this to herself, making this act of faith,“if I have a touch of his clothes, I will be made well.”
Who touched me?
She touched his cloak immediately her hemorrhage stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him; Jesus turned about in the crowd and said “who touched my clothes?” and his disciples said to him “you see the crowd pressing in on you, how can you say who touched me?” He looked around to see who had done it, and the disciples question bring home to us again that point, that point of Jesus’s availability, that point of Jesus’s letting himself be surrounded, letting himself be crowded in a pond, letting himself be touched by many, such that the disciples say “how can you say who touched me? look at all the people around you, look at all the people who are touching you, who might be the one you arelooking for?.” But the woman had known what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling fell down before him, and told him the whole truth; he said to her “Daughter your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your disease.”Daughter your faith hasmade you well, and so there are two ingredients to this miracle, there is the faith of the woman who thinks that Jesus can help her, that the touch of Jesus will bring her healing, and then there’s the actual contact with Christ; there’s the actual act of her touching his cloak with that faith, and so we too need a miracle,or we need our Lord’s help, we too need these two ingredients, we believe Lord, I believe Lord Jesus, that you can help me with whatever problem Ihave.But then, I have to make out, I have to make that effort Lord to reach out to you, to touch you in my prayer, to touch youin the Eucharist, to touch you in Scripture, I have to meet that effort in my prayer life to be close to you.
Jairus’s faith
And in the next paragraph, we see that the faith of Jairus, the synagogue leader, alsopays off. Jesus enters the house, and he goes up to the girl’s room, and the Bible tells us he took her by the hand and said to her “Talita kumis” which means little girl get up. And immediately, the girl got up and began to walk about. She was 12 years of age, at this they were overcome with amazement, and so the father said that right, that if he if he touches her, if he lays his hand on her, she will be made well, and that is precisely how Jesus heals her, he took her by the hand and said to her “Talita kumis”which means little girl get up. And I think, this desire for people to touch our Lord, for people to be incontact with our Lord, but physical proximity, physical contact, is something very human right, we see this, we see this for instance with the Holy Father, with the Pope in Rome, but the crowds, they don’t want to just be there, they want to get as close to him as possible, so they rush up against the barrier, they reach out their hand, in one hand they have their cell phone to take the selfie, and with the other hand they are trying to reach out, and touch the Holy Father if possible. We also see this in a more secular domain, in concerts right?Rock concerts or concerts of people’s favorite bands.
As close as possible
They try to get as close as possible to the stage, and they reach up, and they try to touch that lead singer, they try to touch their musical hero. The same thing withcelebrities right? when a celebrity is noticed three people rush in upon themand ask for their autograph, or star basketball players, or football players, people try to get close and get theirautograph and shake their hand. And so we see the same thing in the gospel with our Lord, and this is something that we have to imitate, this is something that it’s kind of interesting in the next chapter of St. Mark; we see that what this woman did, must have got gotten out, right?That all she had to do was touch his cloak and she was healed, and it looks like this mode of being cured, kind of went viral, so to speak, it caught on, because in the next chapter we see other people doing it, when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Nazareth, and more the boat, when they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him and rushed about the whole region, and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard hewas, and wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they leave the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed, and so it looks like this woman, without wanting to do this, kind of started a kind of healing movement, that all people had to do was touch their cloak .
Be touched
In this Easter season, we see Jesus also refer to his desire to be touched, his willingness to be touched. When our Lord shows up in that Upper Room, and reveals himself to the Apostles, this is how he lets them know that it’s really him, this ishow he proves to them that it’s really him and not a ghost, “Why are you frightened?” he asked them, I mean, when heappears to them in Easter,“And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, see that it is I myself, touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that Ihave, look at my hands and feet touch me and see.” And so, in our own prayer we can use our imagination in our heart, to getclose to our Lord, to reach out to touch the fringe of his cloak, to touch his hands, and perhaps even his feet. We do this when we approach the Eucharist; whenever we can, we do this also in our mental prayer each day.
Our lady and our mother help us to approach our Lord in this way, help us to respond to hisavailability, to be one member in those crowds of people who pressed in upon your son to be with him.
The end
I thank you my God for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations, that you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord my guardian angel intercede for me.
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