In the gospel healing stories, Jesus often took one in need of healing by the hand, Peter’s mother-in-law (Mk.1:31), for example. In today’s gospel, where the woman simply touched Jesus’ clothes and, aware of her healing, “in fear and trembling, fell down before him,” I can imagine Jesus taking her by the hand and gently, tenderly, lifting her up as he tells her to “go in peace and be healed.” That same action of taking by the hand gets my attention in the story of Jairus’ daughter which follows in our gospel lesson. Today I see her story as a model of how Christ Jesus works in our lives here and now.

In looking at our relationship with God, some might say it appears non-existent, dead, but God seems to know that we’re often merely asleep at the switch, going through life on auto-pilot, ignoring all the ways that God reaches out to us. Finally, at some point something happens to wake us up to the futility of that old life. All of a sudden, we experience Christ Jesus taking us by the hand and hear him saying, “Little child, get up!” What an awakening to the presence of the Holy One in our lives! We respond with joy and delight at the sound of Christ’s voice, the healing, life-giving touch of his hand. It feels like being born anew as Jesus told Nicodemus (Jn. 3:3-8), what Paul described as a “new creation” (II Cor.5:17). Truly it is like “everything old has passed away” as we begin to see life through new eyes, the eyes of God’s love. Having waked us up, Christ does not abandon us, but, as he did for the girl in the gospel story, he nourishes us on the way to mature Christian living. The epistles (I Cor. 3:2, Heb.5:12-14) point out that , as for any newborn, we need milk before taking on solid food and that becomes yet another metaphor for how the Divine works in our lives, providing what we need, when we need it.

Having taken us by the hand, Christ does not let us go. As he told his disciples, he is “always with [us] to the end of the age” (Mt.28:20). As for me, I find it helpful to hold on tight.