In the gospel taken from the 5^th chapter of St. Mark, he likes to use a technique that allows him to tell two stories at the same time. He takes a story, divides it into two parts, and then inserts a second story between the two parts of the first story. In today’s text, the story of the woman with a haemorrhage is inserted into the story of the raising of Jairus’s daughter. To understand these stories we need to look at the Jewish attitude towards what is clean and unclean. In the book of Leviticus we have a list of laws and regulations of what is clean and unclean for a Jew. According to the book of Leviticus people who bled were avoided out of fear of ritual contamination; also if you touch a corpse you were contaminated. These rules and regulations were a way of identifying the Jews as a people – different peoples have their rules and regulations. Looking at the story of the woman with the haemorrhage, a flow of blood for 12 years; she was considered unclean, practically she was considered a pariah in her community, and she could not participate in any aspect of society. We could just try to imagine not only the physical suffering of this woman but also her psychological and spiritual suffering as well. She is so desperate that she reaches out and touches Jesus. According to the book of Leviticus she is now rendering him unclean. Here is the key point to his story. So great was her trust that she is restored to full participation in the community. What Jesus is doing here is he is putting an end to this ritual code. The identity of the new Israel, which is the church, could not be defined by ritual behaviours but by contact with Jesus. How many times do we think that we are true followers of Jesus if we abide by certain rules and regulations? Many times we insist that we must do this and we must do that and but Jesus is telling us that what is important is trust in him.

A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is at the heart of our faith. If I trust Jesus, if I have a personal relationship with him them I will go to mass, then I will say my prayers, then I will go to confession, but if we insist on the rules and regulations and not focus on a personal relationship we are putting the cart before the horse. The second story in our gospel today is the raising of the daughter of Jairus. This official asked Jesus to come to his house and heal his daughter who is very ill, just in that moment some messengers arrive telling him that his daughter is dead and not to bother Jesus. Jesus overhears this message and invites Jairus to continue on his journey. When he comes to the house there is a large crowd of friends and relatives gathered in mourning and when Jesus states that the girl is not dead but asleep, his statement is met with derisive laughter. He goes into where the girl is laid out and touches her; here again this shocked everyone because according to the book of Leviticus if you touch a corpse you were considered unclean. He takes the child by the hand and says: ‘Talitha qum’ in Aramaic which means: ‘little girl arise’. Remember that the gospels were written in Greek and here St. Mark uses the original Aramaic phrase of Jesus it just goes to show what an important moment this is. His touch brings the little girl back to Life. Once again the new community, which is the church, is being redefined. Our faith is not believing certain doctrines and fulfilling certain regulations but it is in trusting in Jesus and having a personal relationship with him. All of us in some form or other are like these people in the gospel today, we are isolated, and we are cut off. How do we overcome this? We reach out and we touch Jesus, we form a personal relationship with him and then our life will be resorted. This is what the church is about, touching Jesus and having a personal relationship with him.