Homily for the Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin & Martyr

Today's Gospel passage highlights how Jesus was incredibly popular among the ordinary people of Galilee. He attracted the sick and broken because God's healing power was clearly at work through Him. People begged Him to let them touch even the tassel on His cloak, just like the woman who was healed of her flow of blood. People were hurrying to bring their sick to Him. People experiencing poverty and need were especially desperate to get to Him and make contact with Him.

In our own lives, it is often in our brokenness and weakness that we seek out the Lord with the greatest sense of urgency. Something happens to us that makes us vulnerable and unable to manage things independently.

It is these experiences when we come face to face with our frailties that bring home our need for the Lord and our dependence on Him. Often, the darker and more painful experiences of life open us up to the Lord.

When St. Paul struggled with his "thorn in the flesh," he heard the Risen Lord say, "My power is made perfect in weakness." Our various experiences of weakness can be like gateways through which we reach out to the Lord, and the Lord comes to us.