As many as touched it were healed

MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY (Mk 6,53-56)

The works and the methods of execution reveal the person. They say about him what he can do, what he cannot do, but also in how much time and with what intensity. To raise a dead child, the prophet Elija lays three times on the child and calls on the Lord for life to return to his body: “Sometime later the son of the mistress of the house fell sick, and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing. So she said to Elijah, “Why have you done this to me, O man of God? Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt and to kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah said to her. Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. He called out to the Lord: “O Lord, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times and called out to the Lord: “O Lord, my God, let the life breath return to the body of this child.” The Lord heard the prayer of Elijah; the life breath returned to the child’s body and he revived. Taking the child, Elijah brought him down into the house from the upper room and gave him to his mother. “See!” Elijah said to her, “your son is alive.” “Now indeed I know that you are a man of God,” the woman replied to Elijah. “The word of the Lord comes truly from your mouth” (1Kings 17,17-24). The resurrection occurs by contact, but it is a prolonged, long contact. Jesus does not relax on any dead person. It is enough for him to just touch him with his hand, or to call him to come out of the grave. Today, the Gospel tells us that He does not even touch people. The people are the ones who throw themselves on Him and those who touched him were saved. This mode reveals to us that Jesus is infinitely greater than Elijah. If the word of Elijah is confessed as the Word of God, much more must the Word of Jesus be confessed. Here is the end of these miracles through contact with the clothes of Jesus: leading every man to say that Jesus is the true prophet. Not only a true prophet, but the greatest prophet sent by God among his people.

After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

Elisha also raises a dead child by contact: “Gird your loins,” Elisha said to Gehazi, “take my staff with you and be off; if you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff upon the boy.” But the boy’s mother cried out: “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not release you.” So he started to go back with her. Meanwhile, Gehazi had gone on ahead and had laid the staff upon the boy, but there was no sound or sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and informed him that the boy had not awakened. When Elisha reached the house, he found the boy lying dead. He went in, closed the door on them both, and prayed to the Lord. Then he lay upon the child on the bed, placing his mouth upon the child’s mouth, his eyes upon the eyes, and his hands upon the hands. As Elisha stretched himself over the child, the body became warm. He arose, paced up and down the room, and then once more lay down upon the boy, who now sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” She came at his call, and Elisha said to her, “Take your son.” She came in and fell at his feet in gratitude; then she took her son and left the room” (2Kings 4,29-37). If Jesus is the greatest of all the prophets sent by God, he surpasses scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, chief priests, elders of the people and every other man. Not only all these people never performed a miracle of healing and some other sign on man or on nature, they could not even work the miracle of conversion in the soul. They moved people away from God rather than approaching them. They excluded instead of including. They demolished David’s hut rather than building it. The work reveals its author. Jesus is the greatest of every man who came before or who will come after Him. He is the only true Man and the only true God.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that the Christians manifest all the greatness of Jesus.