Go here to see A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed side by side as they are told in the three synoptics.
If I had to vote on the revelatory power of the three versions, Mark would win, hands down. Matthew's is boring by comparison. It is as if Mark is writing a dramatic play to be acted out on stage and Matthew is writing a catechism. The crowd is missing in Matthew. The woman's identity (see post of Sunday, June 28) is missing. The simultaneous recognition of the healing by the woman and Jesus is missing. The smart-mouthed disciples are missing. What's left is a healing and a resuscitation.
Matthew is deliberate about his editorial practices. It seems he doesn't want to get sidetracked by dramatic details. The essential thing is faith. And as these healings unfold Jesus' fame grows and the decision to accept or reject becomes more sharply focused.
I need characters. I want to place myself in the scene. I think that is why the stories of the saints are rich to me. Today is also the Feast of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin, Martyr. She and my grandmother were from the same tiny town, Corinaldo, Italy. And the story is that Maria babysat for my grandmother when she was a baby (or was it the other way around?). What I remember is that Maria's story was part of the family story, and together we read about her, watched the campy movie, and called upon her intercession.
Maybe that is the disciple's role...
to become a decent-enough…if not quite exemplary…
character in the story of the People of God…
St. Maria Goretti, and that "Bad-Ass-Faith-Filled" woman with a hemorrhage,
Pray for me!
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