Faith saves

Get converted and believe in the Gospel: it is the message-invitation that Jesus came to transmit in his pilgrimage through history. The Gospel: the Good News that God loves us and wants nothing more than that we welcome this love from him. Convert: move from religiosity based on slavish obedience to the commandments to obedience out of love, out of that love that is born from an encounter with Jesus and in him with the Father.

This is faith. Believing hopelessly in him, as some women the Bible presents us. Among the many today we meet the woman with a hemorrhage, this creature whose name we do not know, but whom Jesus calls "daughter". Of her we know well the suffering not only physical for the evil that oppresses her, but above all for the moral one that derives from being singled out and marginalized because she is impure. She had been suffering from blood loss for twelve years, she had squandered her resources with various doctors without being able to recover. The loss of blood refers to the value of life which was dying out in her also due to her marginalization which prevented her from any form of relationship, even that of her with God, as she was also prevented from accessing the Temple.

But she believes in Jesus and she goes towards him with confidence, she has the courage to transgress the Law which forbids her any contact. She is convinced that all she has to do is touch her cloak to enter into a relationship with him. Jesus, although oppressed by the crowd that presses him from every side, recognizes that special touch: "Who touched me?". A question that surprises the disciples who were with him: "Master, the crowd squeezes you from all sides and crushes you", but the Master reveals to them that that touch aroused "a particular force". The faith of a fragile and suffering woman convinced Jesus to welcome her. "Daughter, your faith has saved you, go in peace". Finally, the woman has found someone who lovingly bends over her wounds without feeling disgust or scandal. The slavery of arid legislation is won by the supremacy of love. "Go in peace": it is not a farewell, but a sending. This woman is no longer excluded, she can walk towards God's peace among the people of believers.

This is the salvific mission that the Lord still carries out among us today. Luke speaks of a "particular strength", it is the strength of faith to which he cannot remain insensitive and opens his heart to the healing and beneficial power of his love for him, capable of regenerating and reinvigorating the being.
In our frailties and above all in suffering, Jesus looks at us and encourages us: I am with you. It is only necessary that the path of our life is oriented towards him in order to cling to that hand that he offers us to lift us from the bed of suffering, doubts and anguish into which everyday life slams us and let us be led towards a new life, towards life eternal. This is the faith that is entrusted to us in baptism, it is up to us to guard and nourish it with prayer and listening to the divine Word.


Anna Maria Del Prete
NP March 2023