Thank you for listening to Drawner with Fred and Kara.

Drawner is brought to you locally by Cybercloak.tech, providing confidence and cybersecurity for small businesses. Learn more by contacting Cybercloak.tech's CTO and founder, Steve Gretkin, at 712-220-3001. Thank you for joining us on Draw Near. Rooted in the Catholic faith, this is more than a podcast. It's a space where authenticity meets joy. We're two best friends navigating life, family, and faith with honesty and a lot of love.

Every episode is a heartfelt conversation. Sometimes deep, often lighthearted, and always real. Our hope is to inspire you as we all grow closer to Christ and to one another.

We're so glad you're here. Let's draw near.

Before we start, I just want to say, and I know this comes from me and Fred. Like, thank you, everybody, who's been giving us feedback. I know we only have what, three episodes we've put out or four episodes we've put out since you know we've been away for a little bit. But it's been nice hearing from our listeners, um, knowing that you're still there after the month. Right. And just hearing the ways that like either the teaching, you're, you know, it it brought up questions or it brought up um something that you had been considering, or just hearing that like personal things that we share relate well to you.

I even got feedback on people's pet peeves, which I enjoyed because that was I was intentionally being to tell you they're pet peeves. Yeah, I was intentionally being silly in that last episode. It really isn't my pet peeve, but I just wanted to be funny.

That's hilarious. I would like to know what everyone's pet peeve is. Yeah. So yeah, just the if if you have any feedback, we love to hear that. Um, love to hear how the episodes have graced your life, but also if there's something like we didn't talk about and you would like to hear, we would love to hear feedback. So um if you have any of our contact information, you're welcome to just message us, shoot us a text message, or um, or go to our website and hit the contact just to send us a little note. We would we would really encourage that. Um, so for today's episode, we are going to return to a classic format. We used to do these a lot more. Um, we haven't done one in a while, but we we really enjoy doing Lexio episodes. So for anyone who's new listening or not not as familiar, Lexio Divina means um divine reading. And so it's a way that you pray with scripture. It's a meditative method of praying with scripture. And so we choose a scripture passage and we read that scripture passage and then we kind of just share about some of the fruits and the things that stand out to us from that scripture. And hopefully it's um something that can encourage reflection for all of our listeners um on your own life and your own prayers, um, but also encourage you to like go and spend that time in prayer. I know we have several episodes out where the themes are um surrender and the waiting and prayer, spirituality, things like that. So hopefully the passage we picked today kind of brings about some different themes. I mean, honestly, it might bring about some of the same themes. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That's what the Bible says. So maybe it'll resonate in similar ways, but we're hoping to kind of speak some some new themes into our episodes.

Yeah, pet peeve of mine is when podcasts is always about the same topic.

Yeah, ours is always about Catholic things. I'm sorry. Um, so do you want to share what scripture passage we picked for today?

Well, we looked at uh the woman with the issue of blood, and it occurs in scripture in three different places Matthew 9, 20 through 22, Mark 5, 25 through 34, and Luke 8, 43 through 48. Um, we're we are specifically going to be looking at Mark because it it's the longest account, and uh so that's where we'll be looking.

Which is so rare for him.

Yeah, Mark is very, very short, very abbreviated. Mark is the the gospel that could have an exclamation point after the title, Mark, because that's just it's very, very quick, very punchy. Yeah, you can tell he's just to the point. Yeah, very to the point. And it it's you can tell Peter was in some ways the inspiration or yeah, helped somehow in the process of Do you think that's how Peter was when he preached?

Because Mark's gospel is like Peter's preaching. Do you think that's how he was when he preached? He was just like very like direct.

I think so. I mean, when we when we hear Mark's first sorry, Peter's first proclamation of the gospel, his first sermon, if you will, right after Pentecost, he is very, very direct, very punchy, yeah, you know, and very you killed the Lord of glory. You did this. Yeah. So I don't know. It it sounds like very Peter like in that sense.

Yeah, that's true. That makes me feel a little bit better. I don't know if I like directly call people out in that way, because you know, also pastoral and different times. Right. But I've been told I'm pretty direct. So it makes me feel a little bit better. I'm like, is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? I'm like, I'm not sure.

I'm just trying to be more like Peter, that's all I'm trying to exactly.

Hey. I I think I like I do it because I appreciate when other people are that way with me. I think it helps me. So I apologize if anyone's ever been like, she's too direct.

You've heard it a time or two.

Just a time or two. All right, do you want to do the reading of Mark? Yeah, I can do that. Okay. Um just, you know, enter into a time of prayer and and ask the Holy Spirit to enter into this time as Fred reads this passage.

And there was a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well. And immediately the hemorrhage ceased, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.

So in a usual Lexio setting, you would then spend a few minutes in silence with the passage, um, and just pray to God to bring a word, a phrase to your mind, or even like place yourself in the story. Who are you in the story? Um, so if that's something that you would want to do, you can pause now and spend a little bit of time in prayer. Fred, what was some of the fruit of your prayer when you were reading through this passage?

The word that stood out to me was touch. So I found myself reflecting on that. What does it mean to touch? Especially the fact that she pressed through the crowd. Because if it was hard for Jesus not to be touched by everyone around him, she had to have pushed through like a fullback, you know, yeah, if you will, to get through to him, just to touch him. And so that word touch really stood out to me. I found myself looking up in the original language, what does that mean? So it does mean touch, obviously. It's a simple translation, but it could also mean attach oneself to. So I found myself reflecting on what does that mean to attach oneself to? And I kept thinking about abiding in me and I in you, and you shall bear fruit. Obviously, Jesus is talking about having faith in him and abiding in him. Clearly, that's what was the cause of virtue going forth, faith, uh, healing going forth from Christ was in that moment her attachment to him. Yeah. So that that really kind of struck me and stood out to me. And I found myself reflecting on what does it mean to attach myself to Christ? And and do I push through the crowd uh to get to Jesus, to touch him? Do I spend time reflecting on just reaching out and touching the hem of his garment?

Yeah, it's not just like in the passage, it's not just like a physical reaching out and touching it, but almost like this spiritual desire, like she wants to attach herself to him. I see that in there. Almost like a longing, I guess. I think that kind of goes very s uh slightly with what stood out to me. So when I was reading this, I was sitting at my kitchen table this morning, and super unexpectedly, I just started getting really like teary-eyed. And it was at the very beginning part, which is just like really just setting the stage for what's about to happen. But it was the beginning part where it says there was a woman who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. And I like started getting teary when I was reading it. I honestly don't don't fully know why. Um, I think initially it was just like I could almost sense her desperation. And I don't say desperation it with like a negative connotation. It's just like she had to go to him. Like she had to touch him. Like she was pushing through the crowds, like you said. She just had to get to him. And so I I was looking up. This is something that like everyone should feel encouraged to do. Like when you're praying with something, and if you're like, you just like find yourself clinging to this idea, like keep digging into this idea, keep studying or go like look a little bit more because it only makes your prayer more fruitful and beautiful. So I was like, I found myself, okay, why would she be so desperate? Like, what was the context of this? And I went back to Leviticus 15, where it's the laws of God's people. And when a woman was bleeding, she was seen as ritually unclean. It wasn't anything sinful about it. There wasn't anything like a moral concern. It was just you were ritually unclean. So you couldn't enter the temple, you couldn't partake in some of their religious practices. Anything you sat on was unclean. Anybody who touched you was unclean. And after you just had to go wash and you were fine. But if you had a permanent state, 12 years, a permanent state of uncleanness, like imagine that's what she went through every single day for 12 years. No one could touch her. She couldn't sit on anything without being judged or being like people being angry with her because now that thing was unclean and had to go be washed. Like, I just imagine how not just physically uncomfortable she would have been for all those years, but also like almost, I almost imagine like cast out like a leper. Like no one wanted to be around her. And for 12 years, I mean, people probably recognized her. They probably knew who she was, or that she she bled, or that she was unclean. And now, if you make them unclean, like you're gonna be judged. And so there, I'm I just like I just in when I was reading that, like she suffered many things in her many physicians. She had given everything that she had. Like, I just sensed this desperation. It's like it's been 12 years, and she's probably so alone. Like, she just feels like socially alone and isolated. So, like, that's where in my in my prayer, like the desperation was kind of coming from. It's like not as like that was the motivation for going to him. Like, well, if he can't do it, no one can. But that was like the catalyst to her faith because the context of like what he's doing before this is like he's going around and doing miracle after miracle after miracle. And so she would have heard all of this great work that he was doing and just like built up all of this hope and faith in him that he could do this for her too. So that was like what stood out to me was just like this desperation. I have to go to him. But it was like the intention behind it was faith.

Yeah. And I said she she had reheard reports of all the great things Jesus had done. I love that you bring up the law because we can see some imagery that's uh easy to overlook in our English translation. In Luke, we see that she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. Fringe could mean the border, it could literally mean the fringe, but it could also mean tassels. On a Jewish prayer shawl, we have tassels with knots and spaces. I'm not going to get into all the details. Those tassels are called tsit-seet. If we total all of that up, and I would like to go in more depth to how you come to this number, it equals 613, which those of you that are trivia experts might know that there's 613 laws in Jewish tradition. And so it's interesting that she is drawing from a messianic prophecy in the book of Malachi. It says, But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall. The son of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. The word used for wings is the same word for the tassels. And so you can't help but wonder if this prophecy, this thinking about the law, all these things we find that maybe it was in her mind, if I just touch, he has healings in his wings, healing in his tassels. If I just touch those, I shall be healed, I shall be made well. Because he rises with healing in his wings. I don't know. It's it's a beautiful thought to think about. First of all, we see the symbolism of the law in there. The law is also what made her be considered unclean. But here we have Jesus fulfilling the law and we find healing in his wings. Yeah. I don't know. That's just a beautiful, I'd love to get more in depth in that.

Yeah, I could even see like not even just like the physical healing, but also some spiritual healing. Because if that's something you endured for 12 years out of a faithfulness to the law, like there might be some wounds surrounding the law in that particular area of your life. So even like I see from the if the tassels are representing that, like I even see some of that healing physically, but also healing like in the in the religious sense for her too. Um, I don't know if anyone like we're we like the chosen. So if there's any listeners who have watched the chosen, um, I see even like how they kind of how they portray like after the healing of of this woman, it's joy. Like it's full joy. That's what that mouth uh that prophecy was. It's like full joy. She's just like crying and like leaping in the water and um, you know, cleansing herself. So it's like really, it's beautiful. I like that imagery a lot.

Yeah, you mentioned the that she might have some hard feelings, possibly some hurts toward the law because it's the reason she was considered unclean. I think you can see that in the fact that she came up behind him. Came up behind him. And in two of the gospel accounts, we find that she comes to him in fear and trembling. Yeah. Despite, you know, despite the joy of being healed, she recognizes she's still wrestling with, should I have done that? Yeah. But Jesus reassures her, it's your faith that has made you well. Be at peace.

Yeah, in the Gospel of Luke, it says, seeing that she was not hiding, like he he was like looking around who touched me, and she's like, Well, I'm not doing a very good job of hiding, but it shows that like she was attempting to hide. Right. Um, so maybe there was a little bit of like, I don't know, shame of because she's constantly not not shame of like seeking him out and touching him, but like she's constantly for 12 years been made to feel ashamed of being unclean. So maybe there's just like like we're all human beings. We know what that would do to a person. Just like placing yourself in her situation. Um, maybe there's just like this wound of I should be ashamed. And I do like not to necessarily make this an episode about the chosen, but I think it like helps kind of feed into a beautiful prayer experience too. There are people who are like in in her pursuit of him in this crowd who are like trying to stop her because they recognize her as unclean. And so, like, she's not supposed to touch anybody and certainly not supposed to touch this like person they've seen as the Messiah. And so they're like, hey, stop. And she's like, No, I just have to go. And like, there's this again, this desperation. So maybe after he stops and he's like, Who touched me? Maybe there's like, oh, he knows I'm I was unclean. Now he's on like maybe she's feeling like fear and shame in that. I don't know. I I see a lot of like any number of us could relate to that. Just like, what are things in our life we have a lot of shame around? Is it something we run to God with, or is something like Adam and Eve in the in the garden, like we're gonna go hide out of shame, you know what I mean?

And on the on the other end of things, how often does God do great things for us in our life? How often does he bring healing? And yet sometimes we respond with shame, feeling that we're unworthy of such a gift, or that we're unworthy before God. Yeah. Um despite the faith that allows God to to to bring healing to us. Yeah. Sometimes I know I I do that a lot where I struggle with worthiness, I struggle with identity. Um, even when I know God's doing something great in my life, I struggle with feeling like I deserve it. Yeah. That makes sense. I I guess on one end is none of us deserve anything, and yet God in his great love wants to give us great things. So it's a both and always. But I find that even in the good things, sometimes I struggle with shame. Yeah. And so perhaps in that way I can relate.

Yeah. But like he takes the initiative with her too. Right. Because like her initial reaction is like I need to hide. And then she finally steps up and you know, he he gives her you've your faith has healed you. And he calls her daughter. I don't know in everyone, but in in Luke's passage, he calls her daughter. So it's almost like this like healing, welcome back, you know, welcome back after she's been cast away for 12 years. So there's like I just see a lot of healing, not just the physical healing, but like the spiritual healing, emotional healing, like she's social healing. She's welcome, like she can actually have friends and get married, you know. Just a lot of the like hurt that would go on. But like he took that initiative to stop what he was doing and to find her and to talk to her and to welcome her back. And like, I see that like we should all be able to relate to that too. Whether or not we've experienced like a direct the Lord is speaking to us and but like just recognizing it's true. Whether or not we feel it, whether or not we've heard it, it's true. Like he takes the initiative and welcomes us back no matter where we're at. I think it's really easy, like I said, to just when you feel shame around something to hide, but it's almost like it takes us getting to that like deep point of desperation, like this woman, and that's when we finally reach out to God. You know what I mean? Like, like it takes the valleys and the low. Right. And that's when we finally are like, I have to go to him. You know what I mean? So, or like he uses them for good.

You can, yeah, you can see that. I I do like how you point out that he comes looking for you you mentioned Adam and Eve too, and I it just I don't know if I'm not necessarily I'm thinking out loud on the connections, but same thing with Adam and Eve. When they when they fell, God goes looking for them. Yeah, he knows where they are. Yeah, they tried to hide. We see that in the in the woman with the issue of blood. She tries to hide, God goes looking for for them. Yeah, but it it's to bring healing and restoration, and that's what God does. You know, he brings healing, restoration to what is broken. He knows those places we need healing the most.

It's probably similar to Adam and Eve. Like you said, God knew where they were, but they were hiding out of shame. I bet Jesus knew exactly who it was, exactly what she wanted healing from. He knew her story, and yet he says, Who touched me? And it it wasn't for his own sake, like he he probably knew exactly who touched him. Right. But it was for her to come forward out of hiding, finally, like receive him.

Yeah, that that's a good point, Kara. I I although that seems obvious to me now that he's God, of course, he knows he knows the number of hairs on her head.

Yeah.

Of course, he knew.

Yeah, so why did he have to ask? It was like it was an invitation, not not for anyone but her.

Right.

Yeah, we all have like we can all have that invitation in our own life. I think one thing I do actually really love, and just as like like a the busyness of life and especially apparent, like I love the context that this healing is happening in because it right before it, it's um it's paired with the raising from the dead of Gyrus's daughter. But right before it, Gyrus comes to him and says, My daughter is sick. Can you come and heal her? And he's he's a synagogue leader. And um, Jesus, so he's on the way to Gyrus' daughter. Like this is the context of when this happens. And then all of these crowds, they're following him, they're pushing in on him. And then this woman seeks him out to be healed and he stops. Like Gyrus was probably like, excuse me, like, you know, this is this kind of urgent. She's dying. Um, she needs to be healed. And but Jesus stops and he pays attention to this woman, and just this like beauty and this healing happens. And then, of course, after he goes and he heals Gyrus's daughter. But I see a lot in that in like just slowing down, you know, and like welcoming. I mean, Jesus' whole ministry was like a ministry of interruptions and distractions. It was like, and he healed so and so, but he was really on his way to go do this, or like I must go do this. But then he like stuck around and you know, like he was just so open to where he was and the needs of the people in that moment.

Right.

And I don't know, I just think of like as a mom, you know, I'm sitting at my kitchen table, that's my office at my house, and I'll I'm like trying to get stuff done. And, you know, if my kiddos come and ask me a question, I'm like, just give me a second, you know, I gotta finish this thought or I gotta, you know, but like what would happen if I just like close my laptop and be like, yeah, we can play a game. But like, yeah, I'll come color with you. What could happen? Or I don't know, I'm I'm a very like task-oriented person when I'm in the middle of something. And so, like grocery shopping, for example, I'm like in and out. Like, we just we're just gonna go get our stuff, we're gonna get out. But what would happen if we just slowed down and welcomed if somebody started a conversation with us? You know what I mean? Yeah. What would happen? And I just see that like almost an invitation from Jesus to like invite that into my life, the interruptions, because the like my angel has pointed out to me many, many times, my predominant fault is control. I desire, I like, I just I like to know what's gonna happen. Um, and interruptions are like the least thing, you know, you have zero control over it. You don't know when they're gonna happen, you don't know what's what's gonna come from it, but you can control how you react to it. And so there's just like an invitation from Jesus' example to like embrace the interruptions because such good and healing and beauty might just come out of those.

Yeah, but I like that you point out distractions too, because I see that in her pressing through the crowd. How often does it feel like we're being pressed on in the culture, in the world around us? So many things are pressing on us, so many things get in our way between us and Jesus. Yeah, and yet she pushes through the distractions, she puts pushes through the noise to get to Jesus, to attach herself to him. Yeah. I think there's an example in that for us of pushing through the world, um, pushing through all that attempts to crowd us, crowd us out from reaching Jesus and touching his garment. Uh, there's a lesson in that for us, I think.

Yeah. I know one of the passages when we suggested, or we're like thinking about what passage to do Lexio on, one of them that um I had suggested to was in Luke 19. It was the the passage of Zacchaeus. And I think it was honestly for similar reasons. So maybe God just like wanted to talk a little bit about like he's reaching out, he's taking initiative in all of our lives. Um, because there's a lot of similarities in this. So not that we have to like read through the passage and do a second lexio, but um, we can we can talk a little bit about it. And I would invite you guys to go maybe take this passage and go and do this as your own Lexio after you listen to this episode. Um, it's in, it starts in Luke 19, verse verses one through 10. Um, but there's a lot of, I think a lot of like similarities and a lot of beauty. It's Zacchaeus, he's the tax collector, and he he's intentionally trying to seek out Jesus. Again, there's like crowds pushing around him. He can't get to him. And so, in order to see him, all he wants to do is just see him. He climbs up a tree just so he can like glance at him as he passes by. That's really all he wanted. And what happens? Like, Jesus is God, he knows Zacchaeus is right there. He looks at him and he calls him out by name and he says, Come down immediately. I'm going to come stay at your house. I don't know. I just think that's so cool. Like, all he wanted was to see him because he's a sinner. He's a tax collector. He probably didn't expect much. He probably had a lot of shame. He wanted to go hide, just like the bleeding woman. He was seen as unclean or kind of a pariah.

It's a lot of pressure when God says he's gonna come stay.

Yeah, I'm gonna come hang out with you. It's like, oh.

My immediate thought was, I hope I I hope it's clean when we get there.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I I think there's like maybe God was trying to bring about something in this episode with if both of those passages were kind of ones on our mind, just like really emphasizing he's seeking you out and he's taking initiative. Even if we have like this small step, so often it's just like our part is just this small step. Like, I'm opening my heart and I called out the name Jesus. Maybe that doesn't really seem like a whole lot, but like all Zacchaeus did was climb a tree. All the hemorrhaging woman did was touch his garment. Like it's that one small initiative step that we take, but like, what does God bring from it? There's so much fruit and so much grace. He wants to come stay at your house. He wants to invite you to come out of hiding and come out of shame.

Thank you once again for listening to Draw Near with Fred and Kara. Draw near is brought to you locally by Cybercloak.tech, providing confidence and cybersecurity for small businesses. Learn more by contacting Cybercloak.tech's CTO and founder, Steve Gretkin, at 712 220 3001. We now return to regularly scheduled programming here on Siouxland Catholic Radio.