Time Was Made For The Human Not The Opposite
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Twelve years of her life were gone while hemorrhaging and no one could help her. All the physicians of the city knew her very well; she had been their patient for years. They tried to treat her as much as they could or knew, but were unsuccessful. She exposed their weakness and limitation as she spent on them all her money without any benefit, until she became penniless. Yet she did not allow despair to creep into her heart. Instead, she crept behind the real physician, fully believing that all she needed was just to touch the fringe of his cloak to heal. A free remedy, finally, yet a very dear one; touching the Lord of glory!
This lady had no name. We only know her from her nickname, the “hemorrhaging woman”, as Saint Luke introduces her to us in his Gospel today! Her identity is linked to her illness, an ailment through which she knew how to glorify the name of God.
This woman could be any one of us! But do we know how to glorify God through our hemorrhage or pain? If you think that you are not hemorrhaging, stop and think again! What about the hemorrhaging in your faith, patience and needs? What about the constant hemorrhaging in your family, work and society? How many things are wasted in your life while trying to limit the loss but in vain?
Jesus was on his way to the house of a man called Jairus who was being tormented as his only daughter was dying. The hemorrhaging woman touched Jesus so he stopped and the heart of this poor man nearly stopped beating as he was so worried about his daughter. He thought that the Lord would be late and would not be able to save her. However, this
father would soon realise that he was in the presence of the Lord of time and life. Jesus does everything with calmness and serenity, never rushing out as if running out of time. He does not allow time to control him. He takes his time to introduce to the crowd the faith of the hemorrhaging woman. The Lord wanted to give that woman some of his time and reward her for her courage and faith. Do we know how to give each person in our life their right from our time? Aren’t our multiple preoccupations states of hemorrhaging in our lives? When would we realise that the time has been made to serve the human, not the human to serve the time?
Upon this logic, we live in our parish the season of the blessed lent with the Lord through many spiritual and liturgical activities, especially with the evening prayer and the reflections on the way of the cross every Friday, from the perspective of the Maronite Spiritual Year and under the theme of “living the Christian values”. You can also experience another
encounter with the Lord, any time you wish, before the 14 stations of the cross at the top of the carpark. In these stations, we reflect on the glory of the Lord’s passion. In addition, you can pray at the Lourdes grotto at the Cathedral entrance. Take your time as it was made for your service, not the other way around.
Do not also forget, dear faithful, the act of mercy during this blessed lent by contributing in the work to stop the hemorrhage of others through supporting the activities of Heaven on Earth which are aimed at the poorest of the poor in the country of the cedars, Lebanon. More information are available at both entrances of the Cathedral.
