OCTOBER 26, 2026 MSGR. SAMUEL BIANCO
“Crippled her for 18 years.”
My brother and sisters in Christ, according to the scripture scholars and the doctors who read this text, this woman has a type of arthritis called “ankylosing spondylitis.” I trust I pronounced that properly.
It’s a type of arthritis that’s genetically inherited in most instances, and it can do all sorts of things like cripple up your bones. It freezes your spine and it bends you over. They go through tremendous pain, and distress, and suffering, and so forth.
18 years. That was not uncommon for a person to suffer that. With not a lot of relief or ways of being relieved from her pain and distress.
That type of arthritis is one of the six well-known types of arthritis there are in the world that many people suffer from.
On a personal note, I have one of those types of arthritis. I’ve had it since my early 20s, it’s called psoriatic arthritis. And it can cause all kinds of skin lesions and pains. Even today, my one finger is a little bent over. It doesn’t work properly or function. There’s a pain there.
The good news, at least for the type of arthritis I have, is they’ve come to discoveries, and I’m greatly relieved. And a lot of it is cleared up, and one can only hope that that’s the case for all the other types of arthritis that people suffer.
I live in a senior citizens home, and I see that, especially amongst so many older people, who are needing walkers or ways of getting around, and assistance and great patience, because the arthritis caused them pains, and it can have an effect on your emotions, and sometimes lead to depression. And it changes a lot of your life attitudes, in what you can and cannot do.
As always when we do this we need to have great sympathy for whatever types of arthritis people have.
But we have to keep in mind and keep central, that whatever goes on in bodily sufferings is not removed from the experience and the life of Jesus.
If you think for just for a few moments on the Via Dolorosa, the road that Jesus was on. On that road his body was beaten, and scourged, and knocked to the ground. He carried the burden, not only the cross, but a weight that made him incapable of getting up. He needed help and assistance. And the wounds in his body were painful and deep. And you can imagine as he stretched out, and pulled out on that cross all those wounds were exaggerated. And then hanging there for three hours.
Yes, there are different kinds of suffering that people go through. But certainly in whatever bodily suffering they go through they need to know and people need to understand that the Lord Jesus is with them. His body is precious to him and our bodies are precious to him. And so bodily suffering is something that Jesus is very close to, that matters to him, that he goes through and that he cares about, and he wants people to know that they’re not isolated and alone.
He suffered bodily, yes, but he suffered psychologically. As do all people who go through bodily suffering, or bodily weakness, or need help and care.
The important or most important reality of this story of course is to say that he performed a miracle there. He reached out, and the woman was healed.
People reading and hearing that story said, “Well that’s not possible. Miracles don’t happen.”
Well, in the first instances, the people who told the story to Luke, they recorded it. So there’s testimony, if one wishes to accept it, that people saw and heard what happened to that woman, and that was written and recorded.
And the second reality is, yes, there can be a good and wholesome debate about whether miracles are happening or not. Part of that debate rests on this premise: Is there something beyond the human experience of touching, and seeing, and feeling, and hearing? In other words, is reality greater than what the human mind can touch, or feel, or sense?
And what is offered here is that the creation reality is greater than what human minds can perceive or know. And that, indeed, is what Jesus does when he heals people. He comes in, and he breaks through that, and brings the above nature, the presence of God, to people.
And that happened then, and we think it happens today too, and it will happen at the end of the world. That it would be a resurrection.
The miracle is that there is creation. “From nothing there was something.” The second miracle is that Jesus rose from the dead, and is present. And the third and most powerful miracle is that all creation will be raised up, and lifted up to God.
One can either believe it or not believe it. It’s there, it’s offered as an opportunity for those who wish to see that there is a God, and he’s—is present in the world.
Now the Pharisees are very sceptical today of what’s going on, and they put Jesus down. And in a strange sort of way their ox or their donkey is their livelihood, and they seem to care more about the ox or the donkey than they do about this woman. And they use that rather than to the reality of the miracle.
And they’re hypocritical because that, their ox or their donkey, or their own standing of how they’re worshiping, is more important to them than what happens to the woman.
And I think today we call that “virtue signalling.” That is to say we may speak on behalf of a cause, we may say we’re on this position, and we hold it because it’s important and good, and everyone applauds us and acclaims us, even if in fact we only say, and do nothing to help people.
A virtue signaller says, “I want to be on the side of the applause, but I actually don’t put my money, or my mouth, or my actions to assisting people.”
And so that has implications for you and me today. The first thing is, wherever we can, when we run into people who are suffering from arthritis, we have patience. We have patience with ourselves.
We need to continue to ask the scientists who have cleared up some parts of arthritis, to continue to work. That’s the helping them, assisting them, donating to that.
And the second and deepest reality is whatever is your standard for action. If you are a believer, one believes and looks to Jesus, and God, who are above and beyond us, and asks their help.
If you don’t believe in God but you believe in helping people, and don’t have a sense Of God’s presence, well then follow on your conscience.
We Christians think the very best thing we can try to do is this: To follow our conscience and help people, and to give praise and ask God to be with us.
That’s the wondrous thing. That’s the wondrous miracle that God is performing here and now, and one day will do completely in his kingdom.
