“If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured (Mt 9:21-22).
Just to touch his cloak may seem a small and insignificant act, but by doing so, this woman showed tremendous courage. Suffering from hemorrhaging for twelve years, broke from spending all her resources to be healed, she risked. She could have been severely punished, beaten, or stoned for this small act. Under the Levitical code, her condition deemed her unclean, in the same category as a leper, a pariah. Touching someone else in that condition would then make them unclean. Yet, in that small touch, that great act of courage, “power had gone forth from him” (Mk 5:30), and she was completely healed.
In the parallel account from Mark 5:21-43, he reveals more details than Matthew does in today’s reading. Not only did the woman exhibit the courage to touch Jesus, but she was then willing to admit that she had done so when Jesus questioned who had touched him. Many of the disciples looked at Jesus wondering how he could ask such a question because so many people had been around and touching him. She could have easily slinked away, but she didn’t. She admitted to touching him and would receive whatever the consequence for doing so.
So many around Jesus as his disciples pointed out, and yet why was she the only one healed? Pope Leo addressed this in his June 25, 2025 audience: “In his commentary on this point of the text, Saint Augustine says – in Jesus’ name – “The crowd jostles, faith touches” (Sermon 243, 2, 2). It is thus: every time we perform an act of faith addressed to Jesus, contact is established with Him, and immediately his grace comes out from Him. At times we are unaware of it, but in a secret and real way, grace reaches us and gradually transforms our life from within.”
Jesus recognized immediately that the power came out from him. He may indeed have known who received his grace and gave the woman the chance to be healed on a deeper level and to set aside her fears completely. When she did so, Jesus did not reprimand but affirmed her faith and courage. In this act of healing, Jesus restored her to the community from which she had been ostracized. Jesus restored her dignity.
Pope Francis in his general audience from August 31, 2016, stated: “Once again Jesus, with his merciful behavior, shows the church the path it must take to reach out to every person so that each one can be healed in body and spirit and recover his or her dignity as a child of God”. May we too establish contact with Jesus, and experiencing his grace, reach out, in-person and online, and encounter others offering the same dignity, love, mercy, and respect we have received.
Photo of painting from Magdala.org
Spiritual Stepping Stones 