Why did Christ ask who touched him, if he already knew it was the bleeding woman?
He did not ask out of ignorance, but to reveal the woman’s faith – and to reward it.
He did not ask out of ignorance, but to reveal the woman’s faith – and to reward it.
Editor’s Notes
In this part on the healings of Jairus’ daughter and the bleeding woman, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How, having healed the bleeding woman, Christ’s question drew the woman from hiding and perfected her imperfect faith.
That divine power flowed from him by his will, not mechanically or unconsciously.
Why he attributes healing to faith, not to his own power, out of humility and for our instruction.
He shows us that true miracles both require and reward faith, while revealing the heart of Christ.
For more context on this episode, see Part I.
Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
The Training of the Apostles, Part III
Chapter XXIII
St. Matt. ix. 18–26; St. Mark v. 22–43; St. Luke viii. 41–56; Story of the Gospels § 66.
Burns and Oates, 1884
(Read at Holy Mass on the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost)
Why Jesus delayed healing Jairus’ daughter and healed the bleeding woman instead
Why did Christ ask who touched him, if he already knew it was the bleeding woman?
Who hath touched Me?
‘And immediately Jesus, knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out from Him, turning to the multitude, said, Who hath touched My garments? And His disciples, Peter and those that were with Him, said to Him, Master, the multitude throng and press Thee, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who hath touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me, for I know that virtue is gone out of Me. And He looked about to see her who had done this.
‘But the woman, fearing and trembling, seeing that she was not hid, knowing what was done in her, came trembling and fell down before His feet, and declared before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was immediately cured, and told Him all the truth.
‘But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease. And the woman was healed from that hour.’
Here again we come on an incident, for the complete understanding of which it is necessary that we should form right notions concerning the Sacred Humanity of our Lord.
His words might seem to imply, in the first place, that virtue could go out from Him, for the purpose and end of healing diseases, as it might go out of some medicinal herb or spring, simply by the contact of the person to be healed with any part of His Body, or with His garments which were in contact with His Body.
In the second place, they might be understood as signifying that He required to be informed of the person in whose favour this miracle had been wrought, although He was conscious that it had been wrought in favour of someone, as if the power of healing which belonged to His Body, as the instrument and organ of His Divinity, was almost like a physical thing—a handkerchief or something of that sort, of which He might feel the departure at the moment when it was taken, but not necessarily know who it was that had taken it.
Reasons of our Lord
But in the first place, our Lord did not need to be informed, either now or at any other time, of what was happening about Him, and the question which He now asked was not asked for His own information, but for the confirmation of the faith of the disciples and of Jairus, and other similar reasons.
In the second place, although His Sacred Body, as the temple of the Divinity, had the power of healing all diseases and infirmities in those who touched it—a power which is now and then dwelt on by St. Luke, who lingers over such details with great and loving attention—still this power was only exercised and put into use when He Himself chose, and not at other times.
He frequently used the touch, or the laying on of hands, for the cure of diseases, but at other times He healed and wrought other miracles by a simple command. When the Evangelists say that virtue went forth from Him, or that as many as touched the hem of His garments were healed, they speak of cases in which our Lord willed it so to be, and they use this language about virtue going forth from Him only on such occasions, and not when the miracles were wrought by a mere command or word.
Thus we must recognize this inherent virtue of the Sacred Humanity, and at the same time understand that it was only exerted in this particular way when our Lord so chose. It cannot be doubted that His Sacred Heart had watched over this poor lady, during the whole of the time when she was debating within herself how to obtain from Him the boon which she desired, that He knew of her approach, and that it was in consequence of a direct and conscious act of His will that her cure was wrought.
The woman coming forward
But it was in His mind not only to heal her, but to use her cure for the benefit of others, as has been said, and also to confirm and strengthen and elevate her faith, which had in it something of imperfection.
The question which He asked was asked for the sake of bringing out, in the most natural way, what He desired to make manifest, and not because He could not have pointed her out at once if He had so chosen. The simple action which is described by the Evangelists, of His looking round to see her who had done this, contained the truth of what we are speaking.
For our Lord would not have looked round for a person whom He could not recognize when He saw her. His eyes sought her out, and by that very search she knew, as the Evangelists say, that she could not be hid. She could hide herself from the eyes of men, for her action in touching Him was one of which no one could take particular notice, especially as so many were pressing on Him in the crowd. But His eyes she could not escape, and so she had to come forward trembling and astonished before the whole crowd, to kneel at His sacred feet, and acknowledge all that had taken place in her.
It was this that our Lord intended, and He at once reassured her against any fear she might have that she had offended Him by her act. ‘He said to her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace.’
It was true that her faith had made her whole, though the direct and principal agent in her healing was the supernatural power which had gone forth from Him. For faith was ordinarily the condition on which His miracles were wrought, and if she had not had faith, she would never have touched Him, nor would her touch have been made the means of her cure. And our Lord always insisted on this condition.
Moreover, He always spoke, even on such occasions as this, when He had manifested His Divine power and authority over nature or disease, with the utmost humility and meekness, attributing the effects to the human cause in those who benefited by them, and not to the supernatural cause of His own touch or word.
Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
Why Jesus delayed healing Jairus’ daughter and healed the bleeding woman instead
Why did Christ ask who touched him, if he already knew it was the bleeding woman?
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