A Reflection for Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
Today’s Gospel reading is a classic example of a storytelling “sandwich,” in which the author interrupts one story with another, shorter, account. “Sandwiches” are especially common in the Gospel of Mark, but we also find them in those sections of Matthew’s Gospel, like today’s passage, that draw directly from that earlier Gospel. The story of the official’s daughter comprises the outer layers, the two “pieces of bread.” The healing of the woman’s haemorrhage is the “meat,” the interior narrative that gives the sandwich its character and taste. Whenever these storytelling sandwiches appear in the Gospel, the material that appears in the “meat” provides the theological or spiritual interpretation of the whole passage.
In this particular case, Matthew makes the interpretation clear. “Your faith has saved you!” Again and again in accounts of Jesus’ ministry, the evangelists emphasize the role of faith in the miracles that Jesus performs. Jesus is not a magician or a purveyor of arcane medical knowledge. His healings include the active participation of the people he cures. In fact, the restored and deepened faith of healed individuals is the greater gift of the encounter. Bodies may break again and eventually all will die. Feelings of joy and relief will give way over time to the stresses of everyday life. By contrast, renewed faith in God, if cultivated and cherished, is an initiation into the Kingdom and the gateway to eternal life.
A problem arises if one tries to apply that lesson in a facile way to the healing of the official’s daughter. The young girl is already dead at the beginning of the encounter. She has no ability to believe in Christ or to reach out to him for help. The faith that saves her is not her own but her father’s. A name for this might be “vicarious fidelity.” In some mysterious way, his faith has a positive effect on the girl who is unable to believe for herself. Jesus never says the words, but Matthew’s implication is clear: “Your faith has saved her!”
This opens up all sorts of possibilities for intercessory prayer and for our engagement with the world as disciples. Our own faith can have a transformative effect on the lives of people who cannot believe for themselves. I wonder how different my own life would be if my daily prayer were simply to go to Christ with a name or a face in mind and say with confidence, “Come and lay your hand on this person and they will live.” How much would that renew or deepen my own faith? How much would that transform the faith of another? If today’s Gospel reading challenges us in any way it might be to develop a ministry of “vicarious fidelity,” to find the people who need Christ’s healing touch and to let our own faith be part of the power that saves them.
