“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Matthew 9:22)
In our modern times, where we’ve distanced ourselves from the teachings of the Holy Gospel, who among us doesn’t bleed because of deviations from values, honest relationships, derailed practices, shallow faith, and lack of hope?
Yes, we’ve drifted away, immersing ourselves in a consumer society that traps us mercilessly in selfishness, afflicting us with the deadly disease of ego. Our lives, actions, words, and relationships are often structured by this deceitful ego.
This deadly selfishness dismantles family bonds, erases love from our hearts, and leads us away from the righteous path of salvation offered by Jesus Christ through his sacrifice on the cross. We’ve lost sight of Jesus’s warning: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Due to our lack of faith, we’ve fallen into the traps of Satan, blindly pursuing material possessions, power, and authority. With each sin, we bleed, succumbing further to greed and desires.
We bleed when we fail to resist evil, neglect love, forgiveness, good deeds, prayer, and spreading the word of the Lord. Let us heed the lesson of the bleeding woman, finding healing through faith and repentance. May we turn away from selfishness and towards the path of love, forgiveness, and righteousness, as taught by Jesus Christ.
We bleed in our minds, souls, and hearts when we drift away from faith and succumb to temptations
We bleed when we recklessly indulge in the fleeting pleasures of this earthly world.
We bleed when we fail to hold a reverent fear of God in our relationships with one another, our children, and our families.
We bleed when we distance ourselves from the essence of love, which is God, manifested in its purest form through self-sacrifice for others.
We bleed when we allow the lusts of greed, envy, and gluttony to dictate our lives.
We bleed when we prioritize the possessions of this earthly world over worshiping God and adhering to His teachings.
We bleed when we disregard the sacrifices of martyrs and disrespect those who laid down their lives for the sake of our nation, unwaveringly upholding the truth.
We bleed because we pledge allegiance to leaders and politicians who barter away our fate and the sustenance of our nation.
We bleed because we have accepted the status of being mere slaves and sheep, resigning ourselves to living in the shadows.
After all these deviations, should we wonder why our beloved country Lebanon has become a battleground for others, and why we’ve lost our independence and sovereignty?
There is no salvation for us, no end to our bleeding, except through repentance, prayer, fasting, and the performance of penance.
The Lord is forgiving, merciful, and loving. He is always ready to help us cease our bleeding if we seek Him with piety, faith, and hope, as the bleeding woman did.
The Lord redeemed us through His only Son, freeing us from the yoke of the original sin, and guiding us to the path of salvation.
However, He has left us with a two choices: to follow the path that leads to the heavenly mansions He has prepared for us in His kingdom, where there is no pain, suffering, and hatred, or to stray and deviate from this path, succumbing to the ways of evil that lead to hell—a place of weeping, gnashing of teeth, eternal fire, and the undying worm. On this Sunday, let us draw lessons from the faith of the bleeding woman, strengthening our trust in God, His power, His love, and the grace of forgiveness He offers to those who earnestly seek it and repent, as expressed in Psalm 103:3, “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.
“Let us fervently pray for the salvation of our beloved country Lebanon, for the cessation of the hemorrhage that afflicts its institutions, and for its leaders to turn to the paths of faith, justice, and truth.
The Third Lent Sunday/The Miracle Of Healing The haemorrhagic Woman Luke08/40-56: 40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.”
