“A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak.” (Matthew 9:20.)
Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s Gospel proclamation:
“The Gospel says that the ruler’s daughter was twelve years old. Note also that the woman concerned, who was from the Gentiles, began to get sick at a place believed to be in a Jewish district. Except by way of contrast between physical conditions, the girl’s ailment is not indicated. As for the woman who had a hemorrhage, she approached the Lord not in her home or in the town (because according to the law she was excluded from towns) but while the Lord was walking by, so that in the course of going to one woman, another was cured. The apostles say in this regard, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” (Commentary on Matthew, 1.)
Collect
O God,
Who in the abasement of Your Son
have raised up a fallen world,
fill Your faithful with holy joy,
for on those You have rescued from slavery to sin
You bestow eternal gladness.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Who in the abasement of Your Son
have raised up a fallen world,
fill Your faithful with holy joy,
for on those You have rescued from slavery to sin
You bestow eternal gladness.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
