TUESDAY OF WEEK 4 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us. MT 8:17

HEBREWS 12:1-4

My Soul's Beloved,

If we saw You as You are in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father clothed in glory and majesty we would fall prostrate with fear and trembling before You and never rise up. The fearsome refulgence of Your impenetrable light in our mortal state would cause us to be struck by death in an instant. The holy ones who have gone before us understood the flabbergasting truth about the Son of God. You, O Lord, who from all eternity was clothed in glory containing in Yourself infinite majesty, glory, and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in perfect obedience to the Father's and total self-abnegation came into the world as all of us do, as a totally helpless baby in the womb. 

You who are spotless, sinless, pure, and holy, identifying Yourself with the worst of sinners, the poorest of the poor, the ostracised, the marginalized, those whom the world turns their gaze away from, to destroy sin and every aspect of its horrendous reality which brings eternal decay and death gave Yourself up into the hands of sinners so  God could raise us up to as daughters and sons of the Most High. 

The sad truth though is this, almost all of us are ignorant to a greater or lesser degree of the unimaginable lengths that God has gone to save us. 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.' Does my life reflect this great truth of God's love for me? Is my life transformed by this knowledge? Do I live in fear and trembling avoiding the near occasion of sin because I dare not wound this God who loved me so much, that You lay down Your life that I may not perish in my sins but have hope of eternal life? Forgive me, my Lord and my God, and grant me, those I love, and the whole world the awareness of this great reality and fall prostrate in adoration before the Son of God and the Son of Man who entered into our death so we may into Your life and live forever.  

Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.

PSALM 21(22):26-28,30-32

They shall praise you, Lord, those who seek you.

My vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and shall have their fill.
They shall praise the Lord, those who seek him.

May their hearts live for ever and ever!

All the earth shall remember and return to the Lord,
all families of the nations worship before him;
They shall worship him, all the mighty of the earth;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust.

And my soul shall live for him, my children serve him.

They shall tell of the Lord to generations yet to come,
declare his faithfulness to peoples yet unborn:
‘These things the Lord has done.’

They shall praise you, Lord, those who seek you.

MARK 5:21-43

My Soul's Beloved,

It does not matter who calls on You, You always respond, You always answer, You always meet us at the point of our need. Your heart is always moved with pity, tender compassion, and infinite love for You know that we can do nothing to help ourselves. The more helpless we are the greater Your pity, the greater the sinner the greater the mercy with which You meet us and are moved to touch, heal, and restore us to perfect health in every way.  

This is the case in the Gospel passage chosen by the Church for our reflection today. Jairus' daughter, a synagogue official pleads with You to come and lay Your hands and heal his dying daughter. As always the great crowd is pressing You on every side almost crushing You. The disciples try to protect You but a desperate woman falls on her knees on the dusty road and crawls, inching her way to You bent on touching just the tassels of Your cloak believing that if she can do so she will be healed of the hemorrhage that has plagued her for 12 years.

Here are two desperate people needing Your help to heal - one does so overtly the other covertly. So it is with us, Lord. Some of us are bold in our requests in our pleading as we make our needs known to You and beg for Your help. While others knowing how unworthy we are, come in shame, in secret, trembling in fear but filled with faith anyway, knowing that what You have done for others You can do for us too. So we approach You quietly and reach out to touch You secretly knowing that if we can only reach out and touch even the hem of Your garment we will receive all we ask for because You are God.

Both the official and the woman receive all that they ask for. Jairus' little daughter is restored to life and the woman who touched Your garment is healed instantly. Thank You, Lord, for these miracles reminding us once again that if have faith even if it is as small as a mustard seed all we ask for will be given to us.

‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.