hands on her, and she will live.” Jesus stood up and followed him with his disciples.
Then a woman, who had suffered from a severe bleeding for twelve years, came up from behind
and touched the edge of his cloak; for she thought, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Jesus turned, saw her and said, “Courage, my daughter, your faith has saved you.” And from
that moment, the woman was cured. When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the
flute players and the excited crowd, he said, “Get out of here! The girl is not dead. She is only
sleeping!” And they laughed at him. But once the crowd had been turned out, Jesus went in
and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up. The news of this spread through the whole
area.

Reflect

“Your faith has saved you.” Today’s Gospel narrates the Matthean version of the twofold miracles
performed by Jesus the raising of a girls back to life and the healing of the woman who suffered
from a severe bleeding for twelve years (cf. Mk. 5:21-43; Lk. 8:40- 56). Both the Gospel of Mark
and the Gospel of Matthew identified the father of the girl to be Jairus. Today’s Gospel identified
the man simply as the synagogue official. In Mark and Luke, the daughter of Jairus was severely
sick or at the point of dying. In Matthew, the official said that her daughter was already dead.
There are two things found distinctively in Matthew’s Gospel: the official was nameless and that
his daughter was already dead when he approached Jesus. In Mark and Luke, Jairus did
one last recourse to prevent his daughter from dying. In Matthew, the girl was already
dead and the official put so much faith in Jesus. We may reflect that the nameless presentation of
the synagogue official aims to highlight the fact that he becomes our representative whenever we
make the sincerest act of faith. This happens in time when there seems to be no more hope yet we
come to Jesus and plead with him to do something.

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