Luke 8:44

(non occ.) Of how great praise then is this woman worthy, who with her bodily powers exhausted by the continual issue of blood, and with so great a crowd thronging around Him, in the strength of her affection and faith entered the crowd, and coming behind, secretly touched the hem of His garment.

But not the garments alone saved her, (for the soldiers also allotted them among themselves,) but the earnestness of her faith.

For it was not lawful for the unclean either to touch any of the holy saints, or come near a holy man.

But as she had spent all her substance upon physicians, so the Gentile nations had lost all the gifts of nature. Now hearing that the people of the Jews were sick, she begins to hope for the remedy of their salvation; she knew that the time was arrived when a Physician should come from heaven, she rose to meet Him, more ready from faith, more backward from modesty. For this is the part of modesty and faith to acknowledge weakness, not to despair of pardon. From modesty then she touched the hem of His garment; in faith she came, in piety believed, in wisdom knew herself to be healed; so the holy people of the Gentiles which believed God, blushed at its sins so as to desert them, offered its faith in believing, showed its devotion in asking, put on wisdom in itself feeling its own cure, assumed boldness to confess that it had forestalled what was not its own. Now Christ is touched behind, as it is written, Thou shall walk after the Lord thy God (Deut. 13:4.) For they believe not who throng Him; they believe who touch. By faith Christ is touched, by faith He is seen. Lastly, to express the faith of her who touched Him, He says, I know that virtue is gone out of me, which is a more palpable sign, that the Divine Nature is not confined within the possibility of man's condition, and the compass of the human body, but eternal virtue overflows beyond the bounds of our mediocrity. For the Gentile people is not released by man's aid, but the gathering of nations is the gift of God, which even by its little faith turns to itself the everlasting mercy. For if we think what our faith is, and understand how great the Son of God is, we see that in comparison of Him we touch only the hem, we cannot reach the upper parts of the garment. If then we also wish to be cured, let us touch by faith the hem of Christ. But he who has touched Him is not hidden. […]

Glory to you, hidden offspring of Being, because the hidden suffering of her that was afflicted proclaimed your healing. Using a woman whom they could see, he enabled them to see the divinity that cannot be seen. The Son's divinity became known through his healing, …

(ubi sup.) Now a certain woman afflicted with a severe disease, whose infirmity had consumed her body, but physicians all her substance, finds her only hope in such great humbleness that she falls down before our Lord; of whom it follows, And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, &c.

She came up behind and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood ceased. The Church approaches and touches the Lord, who draws near to Him through the truth of faith. She comes up behind Him, either according to what He …

And He Himself says, If any man serve me, let him follow me. (John 13:26.) Or, because not seeing Christ present in the flesh, now that the sacraments of the temporary dispensation were completed, the Church began to follow His footsteps through faith. Or one believing woman touches the Lord, since Christ who is afflicted beyond measure by the diverse heresies multiplying around Him, is faithfully sought by the heart alone of the Catholic Church.

But as when a man turns his eye to a shining light, or puts fuel to the fire, immediately they have their effects; so indeed he who brings faith to Him who is able to cure, immediately obtains his cure; as it is said, and immediately her issue of blood stanched. For she believed, and was saved, and as was fitting first touched Christ with her mind, then with her body.

Third, regarding the ease of perfect healing from the Savior, it is added: She came up from behind and touched the fringe of his garment. She came up, because she believed; Hebrews eleven: "He who comes must believe"; from behind, because she was afraid, just …

Came behind him,.... In the press and crowd of people, being ashamed to come before him, and tell him her case: and touched the border of his garment the fringe the Jews were obliged to wear at the bottom of their garments, Num 15:38 and which the more religious sort did, for by this they were distinguished from the common people: it is asked (p), "who is a plebeian, or one of the common people? every one that does not read "Keriat Shema", (i.e. hear, O Israel), &c.

What Christ made the constant business of his life --it was preaching; in that work he was indefatigable, and went about doing good (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Here is a discovery of this secret cure, to the glory both of the physician and the patient. Christ takes notice that there is a cure wrought: Virtue is gone out of me,

How much misery and trouble — sin has brought into the world! The passage we have just read affords a melancholy proof of this. First we see a distressed father in bitter anxiety about a dying daughter. Then we see a suffering woman , who has been afflicted twelve years with an incurable disease. And these are things which sin has sown broadcast over the whole earth! These are but examples of what is going on continually on every side.

THOUGH I take Luke's statement as a text, I shall constantly refer to the version of the same story which we find in Mark 5:25 to 29. Here we have one of the Lord's bid ones—a case not to be publicly described because of its secret sorrow. We have here a woman of few words and much shamefacedness. Her malady subjected her to grievous penalties according to the ceremonial Law. There is a terrible chapter in the Book of Leviticus concerning such a case as hers.

How much misery and trouble — sin has brought into the world! The passage we have just read affords a melancholy proof of this. First we see a distressed father in bitter anxiety about a dying daughter. Then we see a suffering woman , who has been afflicted twelve years with an incurable disease. And these are things which sin has sown broadcast over the whole earth! These are but examples of what is going on continually on every side. These are evils which God did not create at the beginning — but man has brought upon himself by the fall. There would have been no sorrow and no sickness among Adam's children — if there had been no sin! Let us see in the case of the woman here described — a striking picture of the condition of many souls. We are told that she had been afflicted with a wearing disease for "twelve years," and that she "had spent all she had upon physicians," and that she could not be healed by any of them. The state of many a sinner's heart is placed before us in this description as in a mirror. Perhaps it describes ourselves. There are men and women in most congregations who have felt their sins deeply — and been sorely afflicted by the thought that they are not forgiven and not fit to die. They have desired relief and peace of conscience — but have not known where to find them. They have tried many false remedies, and found themselves "nothing better — but rather worse!" They have gone the round of all the forms of religion, and wearied themselves with every imaginable man-made device for obtaining spiritual health. But all has been in vain. Peace of conscience seems as far off as ever. The wound within is a fretting, intractable sore, which nothing can heal. They are still wretched, still unhappy, still thoroughly discontented with their own state.

THOUGH I take Luke's statement as a text, I shall constantly refer to the version of the same story which we find in Mark 5:25 to 29. Here we have one of the Lord's bid ones—a case not to be publicly described because of its secret sorrow. We have here a woman of few words and much shamefacedness. Her malady subjected her to grievous penalties according to the ceremonial Law. There is a terrible chapter in the Book of Leviticus concerning such a case as hers. She was unclean—everything that she sat upon and all who touched it—shared in the defilement. So that, in addition to her continual weakness, she was made to feel herself an outcast, under the ban of the Law. This created, no doubt, great loneliness of spirit, and made her wish to hide herself out of sight. In the narrative before us she said not a word until the Savior drew it out of her, for her own lasting good. She acted very practically and promptly but she was a silent seeker—she would have preferred to have remained in obscurity, if so it could have been. Some here may belong to the great company of the timid and trembling ones. If courage before others is needed to secure salvation, matters will go hard with them. They shrink from notice and are ready to die of shame because of their secret grief. Cowper's hymn describes their inward feelings, when it says of the woman— "Concealed amid the gathering throng She would have shunned your view, And if her faith was firm and strong, Had strong misgivings too." Such plants grow in the shade and shrink from the light of the sun. The nature of their sorrows forces them into solitary self-communion. Oh, that the Lord may heal such at this hour! The immediate cure of this woman is the more remarkable because it was a wayside miracle. The Savior was on the road to restore the daughter of Jairus.