Healing in Midlife

Today's Mass readings are about healing. Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24 tells us that God takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living and that death was brought into the world by the devil's envy. The first reading from Wisdom also reminds us that the world’s created things have health in them. God created the world, and it was good. Our world is something to be rejoiced in and enjoyed.

The second reading today reminds us of the importance of balance. Saint Paul tells the Corinthians, (2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15)

(it) does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need.

This is surprising to some who believe that God calls us to give until our giving renders us unable to give at all. But, clearly, the Lord calls us to rejoice in the life He has given us.

God does not want us to be empty and broken, but to be whole and filled with His love. In today's Gospel, (Mark 5:21-43) Jesus heals the woman with the hemorrhage and raises the synagogue official's daughter from the dead.

Jesus calls us to new life in Him. This is especially pertinent to those of us in midlife. It is a time of life when we are being pressed on every side, and like Christ, can sometimes feel the life ebbing out of us. But God reminds us, through Saint Paul, not to give to the point where functioning becomes difficult for ourselves, but instead, to maintain a sense of balance, and turn to Him for healing, through the church, and through the world's created things that have been given to us on this earth.

Like the woman with the hemorrhage (very likely a woman in midlife) we need to reach out to Christ, even in the midst of a crowded mind and a crowded life, and trust that He will know that we, as individuals, are there and have touched Him. And like the official's daughter, He will raise us to new life.

Note: The image above is from the catacombs and is one of the oldest images of Jesus. It depicts the story from today's Gospel of the woman with the hemorrhage being cured by Christ.