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The following text guided the homily:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n- Dear brothers and Sisters, my name is Father Roger Landry. I\u2019m chaplain for the Seton Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. I\u2019m so grateful to Bishop Earl Fernandes for his very warm welcome to me and to my fellow pilgrims to the Diocese of Columbus and for his very generous invitation to preach at this Sunday Mass in the mother Church of the Diocese. Today is the 44th<\/sup> day of our 65 day, 1200 mile journey that I am making with my fellow pilgrims from the Atlantic Ocean in New Haven, Connecticut, to Indianapolis, Indiana, for the upcoming National Eucharistic Congress. Our Catholic life is meant to be a pilgrimage in which we follow the Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd, as he seeks to lead us through the dark valleys and high mountains of life to the eternal verdant pastures where he has prepared a banquet for us. Jesus does not want us to remain static, but he always says to us, first, \u201cCome,\u201d and then \u201cFollow me,\u201d and finally \u201cGo and proclaim the Gospel to every person. Our faith is fundamentally dynamic. St. John the Evangelist summarizes the Christian life as \u201cwalking just as Jesus walked.\u201d And so we are all pilgrims in the pilgrim Church on earth and Jesus accompanies us each day in the Holy Eucharist. In today\u2019s Gospel we see a glimpse of the journey Jesus wants to make with us. Jairus, the synagogue official, makes a difficult journey to Jesus to ask him for a miracle on behalf of his daughter. Because Jesus was unpopular in the synagogue of Capernaum, Jairus\u2019 action was dangerous. He could have lost his job. But he loved his daughter enough to risk everything. Then Jesus began a journey with Jairus to his home, which was not merely a physical journey in the midst of a crowd, but it was also a journey of faith, in which Jairus was asked to continue to trust even after his daughter had died. But Jairus made that journey with Jesus and his faith was rewarded.<\/li>\n
- We also see in the Gospel the desperate pilgrimage of the woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. Her journey was made on the ground, as she slithered through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus\u2019 tunic. Hers, too, was a journey of faith, confident that if she merely came into contact with something Jesus was wearing she would receive a great miracle. Jesus likewise journeyed with her. He stopped walking to Jairus\u2019 house, despite the urgency of the situation with Jairus\u2019 daughter, to be able to bring this woman into the light, so that she would be able to advance in her journey of faith, not only with Jesus, but with others from whom she was cut off because of being ritually impure. Jesus likewise wants to stop to meet each of us, in order to help us grow in faith, too. He wants to heal us. He wants to raise us to the fullness of life in this world. And he does so in the Holy Eucharist.<\/li>\n
- Today at this Mass, as we prepare to make a Eucharistic procession in downtown Columbus, we pray that all of us may do more than merely bump into Jesus or gaze on him with physical eyes, but journey to and with him with the faith of Jesus and this anonymous, bleeding woman. We pray, too, for all those who will encounter Jesus with us along the way, that they, seeing our faith, might come to be touched by Jesus, receive healing, be restored to life, and come to join us on the pilgrimage of earthly life with the Eucharistic Jesus, as he seeks to lead us to the eternal embrace of God the Father in heaven. Jesus has come to Mass to touch us even more powerfully than he touched the girl and woman in the Gospel. Let us open ourselves now to the full power of this Eucharistic miracle of love so that we may learn from the inside how to walk just as Jesus walked as we walk with him today in Columbus.]<\/li>\n
- [Queridos hermanos y hermanas, me llamo Padre Roger Landry. Soy capell\u00e1n de la Ruta de Santa Isabel Seton de la Peregrinaci\u00f3n Eucar\u00edstica Nacional. Hoy es el d\u00eda 44 de nuestro viaje de 65 d\u00edas y 1200 millas que estoy haciendo con mis compa\u00f1eros peregrinos desde el Oc\u00e9ano Atl\u00e1ntico en New Haven, Connecticut, hasta Indian\u00e1polis, Indiana, para el pr\u00f3ximo Congreso Eucar\u00edstico Nacional.<\/li>\n
- Nuestra vida cat\u00f3lica debe ser una peregrinaci\u00f3n en que siguemos al Se\u00f1or Jes\u00fas, nuestro Buen Pastor, mientras \u00e9l busca guiarnos a trav\u00e9s de los valles oscuros y las altas monta\u00f1as de la vida hacia los verdes pastos eternos donde El ha preparado un banquete para nosotros. Jes\u00fas no quiere que nos quedemos est\u00e1ticos, pero siempre nos dice primero \u201cVengan,\u201d luego \u201cS\u00edganme\u201d y finalmente \u201cVayan y anuncien el Evangelio a todos.\u201d Nuestra fe es fundamentalmente din\u00e1mica. San Juan Evangelista resume la vida cristiana en \u201ccaminar como camin\u00f3 Jes\u00fas.\u201d Por eso todos somos peregrinos en la Iglesia peregrina en la tierra y Jes\u00fas nos acompa\u00f1a cada d\u00eda en la Sagrada Eucarist\u00eda.<\/li>\n
- En el Evangelio de hoy vislumbramos el camino que Jes\u00fas quiere hacer con nosotros. Jairo, el funcionario de la sinagoga, hace un dif\u00edcil viaje hacia Jes\u00fas para pedirle un milagro en favor de su hija. Como Jes\u00fas era ya may impopular en la sinagoga de Cafarna\u00fam, la acci\u00f3n de Jairo fue peligrosa. Podr\u00eda haber perdido su trabajo. Pero amaba a su hija tanto para arriesgar tudo. Luego Jes\u00fas comenz\u00f3 un viaje con Jairo hacia su casa, que no fue simplemente un viaje f\u00edsico en medio de una multitud, sino tambi\u00e9n un viaje de fe, en el que se le pidi\u00f3 a Jairo que continuara confiando incluso despu\u00e9s de la muerte de su hija. Pero Jairo hizo ese viaje con Jes\u00fas y su fe seria recompensada.<\/li>\n
- Vemos tambi\u00e9n en el Evangelio la peregrinaci\u00f3n desesperada de la mujer que padec\u00eda una hemorragia desde hac\u00eda doce a\u00f1os. Su viaje lo hizo en el suelo, mientras se deslizaba entre la multitud para tocar el borde de la t\u00fanica de Jes\u00fas. El suyo tambi\u00e9n fue un camino de fe, confiada en que si simplemente entraba en contacto con algo Jes\u00fas se vest\u00eda, recibir\u00eda un gran milagro. Jes\u00fas tambi\u00e9n viaj\u00f3 con ella. Dej\u00f3 de caminar hacia la casa de Jairo, a pesar de la urgencia de la situaci\u00f3n con la hija de Jairo, para poder traer a la luz a esta mujer, para que pudiera avanzar en su camino de fe, no solo con Jes\u00fas, sino con los otros de quienes estaba separada por ser ritualmente impura. Jes\u00fas tambi\u00e9n quiere detenerse a encontrarse con cada uno de nosotros, para ayudarnos a crecer tambi\u00e9n en la fe. \u00c9l quiere sanarnos. \u00c9l quiere elevarnos a la plenitud de la vida en este mundo. Y lo hace en la Sagrada Eucarist\u00eda.<\/li>\n
- Hoy en esta Misa, mientras nos preparamos para hacer una procesi\u00f3n eucar\u00edstica en el centro de Columbus, oramos para que todos nosotros podamos hacer m\u00e1s que simplemente toparnos con Jes\u00fas o mirarlo con ojos f\u00edsicos, sino viajar hacia y con \u00e9l con la fe de Jairo y esta mujer an\u00f3nima y sangrante. Tambi\u00e9n oramos por todos aquellos que encontrar\u00e1n a Jes\u00fas con nosotros en el camino, para que, al ver nuestra fe, puedan ser tocados por Jes\u00fas, recibir sanidad, ser restaurados a la vida plena de fe y venir a unirse a nosotros en la peregrinaci\u00f3n de vida terrenal con Jes\u00fas Eucar\u00edstico, mientras \u00e9l busca llevarnos al abrazo eterno de Dios Padre en el cielo.<\/li>\n
- Jes\u00fas ha venido a esta Misa para tocarnos a\u00fan m\u00e1s poderosamente de lo que toc\u00f3 a la ni\u00f1a y a la mujer en el Evangelio. Abr\u00e1monos ahora al pleno poder de este milagro eucar\u00edstico de amor, para que podamos aprender desde dentro c\u00f3mo caminar tal como Jes\u00fas camin\u00f3, como caminamos con \u00e9l hoy en Columbus.]<\/li>\n
- In the ongoing Eucharistic Revival of the Catholic Church in the United States, the most important outcome is for us not just to recognize that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ \u2014\u00a0the same Jesus who was in Mary\u2019s womb for nine months, whom St. Joseph held in his strong arms, who died on Calvary for us, rose from the dead on the third day and ascended to heaven 40 days later \u2014\u00a0but to treat Jesus the way Mary and Joseph treated him, the way the disciples and apostles treated him, the way the saints throughout the centuries have treated him. We Catholics firmly believe and forthrightly profess that the Eucharist is not a thing, the Eucharist is not bread and wine, but is in fact the eternal Son of God, the Savior of the World, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He just looks different than he did in ancient Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, humbly present for us under double miracle of the transubstantiation of bread and wine into his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity and the retention of the appearances of bread and wine so that we won\u2019t be repulsed when we consume him. The question is how do we in fact treat Jesus? Do we approach him with faith and awe? Do we draw close to him with love, hope and gratitude?<\/li>\n
- In the second reading, St. Paul tells us that that Jesus, even though he was rich, made himself poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich. This truth obviously applies to the way that the Son of God took on our humanity so that we might share in his divinity. It applies to the way he was stripped of everything and killed on Calvary so that we might participate in his triumph over sin and death in his resurrection. To anticipate the Gospel he came to hemorrhage his blood on Calvary, to enter into our pain, our shame, our embarrassment even as we see in the healing of Jairus\u2019s daughter into our death and resurrection. He, God, came to share radically in our death so that he might do for all of us something even greater than he did for her, not just resuscitating us to die again later, but raising us to eternal life. This incredible solidarity applies most of all to the way Jesus is with us in the Eucharist. As St. Thomas Aquinas told us in his beautiful Eucharistic hymn, Adoro Te Devote, on the Cross his divinity was hidden, but in the Eucharist even his humanity is hidden; Jesus impoverished himself in this way so that he might unite us to his risen life even now, so that he might fill us with his joy, so that he might enrich us as we receive him as the world\u2019s greatest treasure.<\/li>\n
- Today\u2019s dramatic Gospel scene helps us to see the faith with which two different people in need approached Jesus 2000 years ago, which can place a mirror before us about how we, too, draw close to Jesus today. The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage in today\u2019s Gospel is one of the literally most touching of all Jesus\u2019 miracles. Jesus was on his way with Jairus, the synagogue leader, to care for his daughter who at the time was on the point of death. St. Mark tells us that a large crowd was following Jesus and pressing in on him. As happens in almost any big crowd, people were no doubt bumping into Jesus left and right. Yet in the midst of all of that commotion on the move, Jesus is touched in a different way by this anonymous woman \u2014 and Jesus immediately knew he was touched differently. The woman believed that if she could just touch the tassel of Jesus\u2019 garments, she would be cured. And she was not to be disappointed.<\/li>\n
- Jesus, upon feeling his healing power go out in response to her faith, stopped and asked, somewhat remarkably, \u201cWho touched my clothes?\u201d It would be as if an ambulance driver speeding to attend to a 911 call all of a sudden heard a faint, friendly tap of the horn and slammed on the brakes trying to find out who was trying to say hello. Jesus stopped, and doubtless to the confusion and concern of Jairus, began to ask who had come into contact with the hem of his tunic. It shows how big the crowd must have been, banging into him, that he didn\u2019t even see the woman approach him to touch the edge of his garments. \u201cWho touched my clothes?,\u201d he kept asking. Jesus was never interested in merely working miracles of bodily healing. Those were always a prelude to the greater miracle of healing souls, and that healing happened and happens through a personal relationship with him. That\u2019s why he never worked \u201cmass miracles of healing,\u201d but always cured people one-by-one, because he wanted to have that personal bond. So Jesus wanted to meet and enter into a relationship with the person he had just physically cured.<\/li>\n
- After Jesus\u2019 question, the woman approached with fear and trembling, fell down before him and told him everything, including how she had sought to pick-pocket a healing miracle from him without his knowledge. She was afraid not just because the stop she had caused Jesus to make was going to prove fatal for the daughter of the understandably impatient, powerful synagogue leader, but because by her touching Jesus with her effusion of blood, she was making him ritually impure according to the Jewish law and incapable without ablutions of entering the synagogue or the temple. That ritual impurity meant that she had been suffering not only physically for twelve years, but also socially and religiously: because of her bleeding, she couldn\u2019t touch anyone and was basically cut off from human contact; she was even, in a sense, cut off from God by not being able to enter the synagogue. She probably thought that Jesus and everyone else with whom she would have come into contact trying to get to Jesus would have been furious with her. But Jesus would address all those problems. He spoke to her tenderly, called her \u201cDaughter,\u201d and said, \u201cYour faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.\u201d He made the miracle public so that she could be restored totally to the community, to the worship of God, and to a relationship with God-in-the-flesh.<\/li>\n
- The miracle of the healing of Jairus\u2019 daughter likewise happened with a touch. Jairus, the leader of the Capernaum synagogue where Jesus was already becoming controversial, didn\u2019t care if the rabbis and the members of the community would criticize him for reaching out to someone who was already highly suspect in their eyes and was no longer even welcome in their synagogue. He loved his daughter too much to care about his career. With fatherly abandon, he ran up to Jesus, threw himself humbly and plaintively at his feet, and, as St. Mark says, begged Jesus repeatedly to come to lay his hands on his daughter that she might get well and live. Jairus knew that there was a power to Jesus\u2019 hands, to his healing touch, and he wanted his daughter to feel it. And at the end of the scene, after she had died and everyone was mourning her death the way anyone would weep uncontrollably at the death of a child, Jairus would see that Jesus\u2019 healing touch was even more powerful than he had imagined, <\/em>even more miraculous than he had just witnessed with the hemorrhaging woman. \u201cDo not fear,\u201d Jesus told Jairus, \u201conly believe,\u201d and Jairus did both. When Jesus arrived at the house after the little girl had died, he took her by the hand, touched her, and said, \u201cLittle girl, arise!\u201d In Greek, the verb for arise comes from the same word used to describe Jesus\u2019 resurrection. Like in Michelangelo\u2019s famous scene of the creation of Adam on the vault of the Sistine Chapel when God stretches out his hand and instills life into Adam, so Jesus\u2019 touch brings life back into this little girl. \u201cI am the resurrection and the life,\u201d Jesus said elsewhere, and his touch contains within it that resurrection, that life, that total restorative power. The miracle of raising this little girl from death to life was meant to show what Jesus wants to do for all of us, in this world and forever. As the Book of Wisdom tells us in the first reading, \u201cGod did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. \u2026 For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to [the devil\u2019s] company experience it.\u201d Jesus came to give us a triumph over the devil. As we prayed in the Psalm, he came to rescue us so that our infernal enemies wouldn\u2019t rejoice over us and so that he could change our mourning into dancing. As we pondered in the epistle, even though he was rich, he became poor, spending himself for us totally down to the last drop of his own effusion of blood, so that by his poverty we might become rich. Jesus came to bring to fulfillment in your life and mine what the miracles in the Gospel point to.<\/li>\n
- The question for you and me is whether in our lives we humbly reach out to touch Jesus in the Eucharist with the faith of Jairus and the woman with the 12 year hemorrhage \u2014\u00a0or do we just \u201cbump into him,\u201d like all those following in the crowd, who, even though they were coming into physical contact with him, were receiving none of his healing and transformative power. Today many in our society, including many Catholics, have lost touch with Jesus and his healing power in the sacraments and prayer. Some Catholics live and come to Church almost as non-Catholics, without conviction in Jesus\u2019 Real Presence. When we come to Mass and approach to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, do we do so with faith, knowing that we\u2019re touching far more than the hem of his garment, but receiving his whole Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity within? That he can work miracles for us just like the two he worked in the Gospel? On Friday the Eucharistic pilgrimage stopped at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor for a processing with the nursing home and then a holy hour. As part of the Holy Hour, during which we focused on how in the presentation in the Temple Saints Simeon and Anna had touched the baby Jesus, I had the privilege to bring Jesus individually to all those present. They touched the monstrance, many kissed it, and they were touched by Jesus.\u00a0 Many were weeping uncontrollably. It was very moving. The same Jesus who walked through Capernaum, who walked through Mother Angeline Manor, comes here to St. Joseph Cathedral today for you, to touch you and me, and not just on the outside. He comes to touch us on the inside. But are we going to touch him with true faith, knowing he can cure us of our inner wounds, knowing he can raise from the dead whatever in us is lifeless? Will we receive him with awe and reverence? Will we draw close, knowing the depth at which he wants to reach out and touch us? Just like he did with Jairus\u2019 little girl, so he wants to lay his hands on us, as he did on the day we were baptized, as he does in silence in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, as he does through the raised hands of the priest giving God\u2019s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance, and as he does within, as we become for a time like a tabernacle in which the King of Kings makes his abode. Will we allow him to transform us in such a way by our contact with him in prayerful adoration so that we can in turn become the hands of his mystical body, burning with his desire to reach out and heal a wounded world in which so many are bleeding, in which so many, including little girls like Jairus\u2019 daughter, are dying physically and spiritually because they\u2019re not in a life-changing relationship of faith with Him who is the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth and the Life?<\/li>\n
- Every Mass is meant to be a sacred encounter with God in which he touches us at the greatest depth of our body and soul and seeks to bring us into greater communion with him. But for this dramatic transformation to occur, we need to believe in him, in his teaching, in his love, in his power. He tells us, as he told Jairus, \u201cDo not fear, just believe.\u201d We prepare to do so as we proclaim with fervor our Profession of Faith, as we get ready to fall on our knees before him as he enters not Jairus\u2019 house, but comes under the roof of each of us and makes us a true temple. Today we beg him for the grace to \u201carise!,\u201d to be raised up to the fullness of life with him, and with us the whole Church, so that filled with a contagious amazement like all those in Jairus\u2019 house after the miracle, others, in seeing our awe, might hunger to follow us here to where the Eucharistic Jesus wants to touch and change them, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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The readings for the Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n