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

During His ministry on earth, those who came to Jesus in the greatest numbers were people who were suffering, people who were distressed, those who had the least going for them in life. They recognized that He had come to bring them life; that He had come especially for the suffering, the broken, the lost.

We, too, come to the LORD with a sense of urgency when we are struggling, when we are in some kind of distress. Like the crowds in the gospel, we reach out to touch the LORD in our brokenness, recognizing Him as the source of healing and life. The LORD is as present to us as He was to the crowds in Galilee so long ago; He remains strength in our weakness, healing in our brokenness, life in our varied experiences of death. We can approach Him with the same sense of confidence of being well received as the crowds in Galilee that we hear about in today’s gospel.+