This Sunday’s Gospel highlights a neglected topic when it is read from the experience and perspective of women. The Gospel is an account of a miracle within a miracle. In the middle of going to the aid of a dying young woman of 12, daughter of a synagogue official, Jesus heals another woman who had “been bleeding” for 12 years. The 12-year-old young daughter is just on the verge of her sexual maturity, and saved from death, she now can go on to be a mother. The other woman can finally heal and have a normal woman’s life. Remember that, for the Jews, menstruating women were unclean, and anyone they touched also became impure. So these two healings focus on the bodies of women, from whose monthly cycles and labor pains we all emerge. Across our world, women still are discriminated against in so many ways. Shining the women’s perspective on our Gospel opens our awareness to this still-unredeemed area of modern life. Let’s spare a prayer this week for all young girls just becoming women, and for other women who continue to live with the afflictions and abuse imposed on them just for being women.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia