Sermon 63A
SERMON 63/A
On the Woman Who Suffered from a Flow of Blood
In the field of God, let us be wheat, not chaff.
The Church of God, the holy Church, of which He is the head. For if He is the head, we are the body; provided we are such that we endure pressure from the crowds, and do not put pressure on the Lord. A great multitude flows to the Church spread over all lands, all nations believe; and in all nations one part presses, another is pressed; the part that is pressed endures; the one that endures will receive the reward, reaching the fruit of endurance, about which the Lord says in the Gospel: It bears fruit with endurance. For it is the part of the saints, spread everywhere; for it is wheat, and the wheat had to be sown throughout the whole field, that is, throughout the whole world; for the Lord called the field the world. He calls all His faithful, who approach God not with lips but with heart, wheat; but all who approach in such a way that they do not approach with the heart, He counts as chaff and weeds. Both are in the whole field or the whole threshing floor, both wheat and chaff; but the chaff is the greater part, the wheat smaller but more solid, smaller but heavier, smaller but more precious; because of which labor is undertaken, because of which caution is taken; for which the granary, not the fire, is prepared. Therefore, let no one congratulate themselves simply because they enter within these walls; let them turn their attention back to themselves, examine their own heart; let them be their own strictest judge, so that they may feel Him as a merciful father; let them not flatter themselves, let them not take their own persona; let them sit on the tribunal of their mind, apply the torments of fears to their conscience, confess to God who they are: if they see themselves as wheat, let them be pressed, let them be threshed, let them endure, and not be anxious that they are mixed with chaff: in the threshing floor chaff can be with them, but in the granary it will not be.
What the hemorrhaging woman and her disease signify.
However, since we have said, most beloved brothers, let us belong to the member of him, whose type that woman bore. And truly, your Charity is expecting, whose type that woman bore; for we say that she signified the Church which comes from the Gentiles; for the Lord was going to the daughter of the synagogue ruler to raise her up. The daughter of the synagogue ruler signifies the Jewish people; for the Lord did not come except to the Jews, saying: I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He came as if to the daughter of the synagogue ruler. Then that woman, as if coming from some unknown direction, unknown, because she was ignorant, and she touched the Lord in faith, saying: If I touch the hem of his garment, I will be saved. She touched, and she was saved. But in her was a detestable disease, a flow of blood. And yet everyone shudders to either hear or endure this; they shudder at the flow of blood in the body, therefore they should not endure it in the heart. The disease must be more avoided in the heart. Somehow the perversity of the inhabiting soul, turned towards its dwelling, left itself. The master wants the flow of the body to be cured, that is, the spirit its body, which inhabits that very house, that is itself. What profit is there in a marble and lacquered house, where the head of the household is not healthy? What did I say? What profit is there in a healthy and safe body, where the spirit is sick and is the inhabitant of the body? So the flow of blood in the spirit is luxury: just as the greedy are like those with dropsy – for they want to drink – so the luxurious are like the flow of blood. For the greedy labor by desiring, the luxurious by spending: there is appetite in one, flow in the other; but both kill. A physician is needed, who comes for the diseases of the souls: but he wanted to heal the diseases of the bodies for this reason, to show himself the Savior of the soul, because he is the creator of both. For he is not the creator of the soul, and not of the body; and therefore, he wanted to admonish the soul, so that it might be healed within. For this reason he healed the body: the soul was intent within, so that it might desire what it saw Jesus performing outside to be performed within. What is it that God performed? He healed the flow of blood, he healed the leper, he healed the paralytic. All these are diseases of the soul. The lame and the blind; for everyone limps who does not walk rightly on the path of life, and he is blind who does not believe in God; the luxurious suffer from the flow of blood, and every varied and deceitful person suffers the spots of leprosy. And it is necessary that he heals inwardly who therefore healed outwardly, so that he might be desired to heal inwardly.
The garment of the Lord, the Apostles; the fringe, Paul.
Therefore, this woman was suffering from an issue of blood and is healed from the carnal affliction because all her strength was draining away; in the same way, the soul, by pursuing carnal desires, expends all its strength. And this woman spent all her substance on physicians; thus it is written about her. How the wretched Church of the Gentiles, seeking happiness, seeking to have some strength or seeking medicine, had spent so much on false doctors, on astrologers, on fortune-tellers, on diviners, and prophets of the temples? For all promise salvation, but cannot give it, because they do not have what they promise. She had therefore spent everything and was not healed. She said: I touch the fringe of his garment; she touched, and was made whole. Let us seek what the fringe of the garment is. Let your Charity attend. The garment of the Lord is understood to be the Apostles adhering to him. Seek which Apostle was sent to the Gentiles: you will find Paul the Apostle sent; for most of his work was in the apostleship of the Gentiles. Therefore Paul the Apostle sent to the Gentiles, he is the fringe of the Lord's garment, because he was the last of the Apostles. Is there not another fringe of the garment, both the latest and the least? The Apostle says both about himself: But I am the least of the Apostles, and: I am the least of the Apostles. He is the last, he is the least. He is the fringe of the garment: and the Church of the Gentiles, like the woman who touched the fringe, was suffering the issue of blood; she touched, and was made whole. And we also should touch, that is believe, so that we may be saved.
[An explicit discourse on the woman who suffered from a flow of blood].