“There was a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years.” Mark 5:25

“To heal I to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear.”  Stephen Levine

“Don’t have a holy hemorrhage.” 

That used to be a figure of speech that pertained to a person having a hissy fit (another figure of speech), or getting too excited or upset about something. 

We’ve all “been there, done that.”  There’s nothing holy about getting extremely bent out of shape when someone does us wrong–or something goes wrong in life.  It’s even less holy if it is a symbol of having an actual condition that we suffer with for years.

That’s what the woman in this precious story recounted by St. Mark is experiencing.  She had tried everything to be cured of her illness to no avail. More than just a medical malady, this constant flow of blood caused her to be seen as “unclean” by other people.  She was an outcast, not only because she carried with her everyday the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual trauma of bleeding—but because she was shunned.  Think for a moment how lonely her life must have been.

Now when one reads this story, it may evoke a sense of compassion or pity for the woman.  One might do a little research into the medical cause of her condition.  Or even go down the rabbit hole of ancient remedies that may have been tried.  But though this might be an interesting venture into cognitively conditioned bible study”, it would have little or no benefit or meaning for us personally.

As I read this story again this past week, it made me wonder what it is that I have suffered with during my life?  Nothing like that woman, I can assure you.  But there have been missteps and mishaps in life that have hung around, and even haunted me, hampering me from living fully.

What about you?  What have you experienced in your life that has become a malignancy?  It may or may not be something physical.  More likely perhaps it is something emotional or spiritual.  Maybe you are one of the many women (or men for that matter) who were sexually abused as a child, and that heinous act has permanently affected how you engage with others and the world.  Perhaps it has caused you to live in fear, with a sense of permanently being a victim, or projecting that past trauma into present relationships.

Or maybe it was a traumatizing spiritual experience.  How many people have I met who left “church” because of a crisis of faith often-times caused by clergy, other Christians, or the toxic culture present in so many congregations.  The unfortunate result is that they have carried this spiritual sickness with them throughout their lives.  Does this describe you?

Too frequently one fails to find health and healing in the commonly prescribed “medicines” so common in culture and Christian circles.  However there is an elixir that might be found helpful—A Divine dosage if you will–that only takes a touch. 

That is what the woman found.  That bleeding that had touched her with fear for so many years was now touched with love.  The love of God. The love of God in the person of Christ.  It was a real touch that provided relief, restoration, and resurrection—both temporal and eternal. 

And now I stop—so as to not sound to pietistic—and ponder what touch of love provides healing for past hurts.  Where do I find that touch?  Who do I touch?  How do I touch?  Or how can it touch me?  And will I be brave enough to reach out so as to receive it?