According to Dr. James Dobson's book, Coming Home, Timeless Wisdom for Families, published in 1998, King Frederick II studied fifty infants in the 13th century to determine which language they would speak if they were never exposed to spoken words. Consequently, he assigned foster mothers to bathe and breastfeed the children but prohibited them from talking to them or cuddling with them.
The experiment was a failure because all fifty of the infants died. A few centuries later, we learned that babies who aren't held and cuddled often don't thrive.
To put it another way, it is not sufficient to feed, clothe, and take care of children's physical needs. In order for them to survive, it is essential to hold them and nurture them.
In today's gospel, Jesus is asked by an official to lay His hand on his daughter so that she may live. And the woman, who had been bleeding for twelve years, wishes to touch Jesus' cloak to be healed.
In the Book of Numbers, Moses instructed the Israelites to put tassels on their garments' corners and fasten each tassel with a violet cord (15:38-41). The tassel serves as a reminder for the Israelites of God's presence, salvation, and commandments. This woman seeks to touch the tassel of Jesus' cloak because she believes this gesture will bring her a magical cure. She is healed not because she touches the tassel but because of the words of Jesus spoken to her and declaring to her that her faith in Him is the source of the cure.
As the story suggests in my introduction, touch is essential to healing. According to Jewish worship laws, touching a corpse or a person only considered dead makes Jesus ritually unclean (Lev. 15, Num 19). And also allowing the woman with the hemorrhage to touch Him also made Him ritually unclean in the eyes of the Law. The woman is aware that by touching Jesus, she makes Him ritually unclean, and, also, she knows that she is forbidden to move about in public. But Jesus does what He is not supposed to do. He does the opposite: to touch and be touched by those whom the Law declares unclean and untouchable. Therefore, we could say that in order for the healing to take place, we have to either touch Jesus or allow Him to touch us.
The story of the woman with hemorrhage teaches us the power of touch, the human connection, and faith in Jesus. We must reach out to others, offering love and support, as Jesus did. By embracing His healing presence through faith, we find restoration.
Let us break barriers, be agents of healing, and recognize that true life and wholeness come from touching and being touched by Jesus and others.
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