Leaky Jesus (Mark 5:21-43)

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B.

I didn't preach this weekend (enjoyed hearing Mark DeMott preach mission appeal instead), but this gospel is a really important one for me, so I wanted to share some thoughts here. Four years ago today, I was admitted to our infirmary because my lungs were slowly filling up with gastric fluid (and, yes, that's about as bad as it sounds). I'm fine now, but if I don't manage certain things carefully, or if I'm just unlucky, it could easily happen again. The next semester, I took a class on medicine, magic and miracles in the New Testament with Candida Moss who shared her interpretation of this week's Sunday gospel, Mark 5:21-43, which is usually termed "the woman with the flow of blood," but she titles "the man with the flow of power." Having only recently discovered how my body is pathologically leaky, it was very powerful to (re-)discover that Jesus' body is leaky too. He gives up control, so that healing can leak out of him. "Leaky Jesus" isn't normally one of the invocations in the litany of the Sacred Heart, but I figure he's OK with me calling him that.