7 July 2025 – Monday of the 14th week
Homily
The Gospel story we have just heard is very well constructed. Almost every detail is charged with symbolic meaning, and we will certainly not grasp the full message if we read it simply as a beautiful ‘story.’ The story is only there to support the message, and that message concerns life and its restoration.
It is no accident that we have two stories in one here; and there is no serious reason to think that the two events happened at the same time and on the same day. The two stories are brought together because they have much in common and convey the same message. In each case, it is about a woman. Obviously, women have a very special relationship with life. They give life to their children after caring for this new life in their womb for nine months, and they continue to care for them long after birth. In Semitic culture, giving life was the highest honour for a woman as well as her most important duty. And, of course, every Jewish woman nurtured the secret hope of being the mother of the Messiah herself.
The two women in our Gospel share the fact that they are deprived of the opportunity to fulfil this duty and receive this honour — the first because of her death in infancy. Matthew does not mention her age, but according to Mark, she was twelve years old—the age of legal puberty and the age at which Jewish girls were usually given in marriage (she was therefore not a ‘child’ but a young woman of marriageable age). the second because of her type of infirmity, which made her unclean according to the Law, thus excluding her from any contact with men and depriving her of the possibility of becoming a mother.
Jesus restored both of them to the fullness of life, to their full femininity, and thus restored them to their role as potential givers of life. By healing them, Jesus revealed Himself as the one who gives life. The oldest title of Christ in the Syriac Church was ‘the one who gives life’. When Jesus, at the end of the story, commands that the young woman be given food, he also reveals Himself as the one who nourishes life. He is the one who gives and restores not only ‘spiritual’ life, but ‘human’ life, a life that is at once physical, psychological and spiritual.
In doing so, Jesus reminds us of the beauty and value of life—of all forms of life. All of us, young or old, married or single, are called, following the example of Christ and each in our own way, to give life, to nourish it and, when necessary, to restore it.
And it is because we believe in this mission received from Christ, in whom we share the same faith, that we want, once again this morning, to receive the Bread of Life together. Let us allow ourselves to be led into the desert, and throughout this day, let us listen to Jesus speaking to each of our hearts.
Armand Veilleux