Christians sometimes approach Jesus in a superficial way, “without truly believing in his power,” according to Pope Leo XIV.

The pontiff was speaking during his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, when he was speaking about the passage in the Gospel of Mark about the Jesus healing the woman with a bleeding issue and raising another man’s daughter from death.

“Today we will again consider the healings of Jesus as a sign of hope. In Him, there is a strength that we too can experience when we enter into a relationship with His Person,” Leo said.

“A very widespread ailment of our time is the fatigue of living: Reality seems to us to be too complex, burdensome, difficult to face. And so we switch off, we fall asleep, in the delusion that, upon waking, things will be different. But reality has to be faced, and together with Jesus, we can do it well. At times we feel blocked by the judgment of those who claim to put labels on others,” he said.

“We walk the surfaces of our churches, but maybe our heart is elsewhere,” the pope said.

He turns to the two figures in the Gospel of Mark.

“This woman, silent and anonymous, conquers her fears, touches the heart of Jesus with her hands, considered unclean because of her illness. And she is immediately healed. Jesus says to her: ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’ In the meantime, the father receives the news that his daughter is dead. Jesus says to him: ‘Do not be afraid; just have faith.’ He then goes to the house and, seeing that everyone is weeping and wailing, says: ‘The child is not dead but asleep.’ … Jesus’ act shows us that not only does He heal from every illness, but He also awakens from death. For God, who is eternal Life, death of the body is like sleep. True death is that of the soul: Of this we must be afraid,” Leo said.

He ended his speech by noting that Jesus, after reviving the child, tells the parents to give her something to eat.

“Here is another very concrete sign of Jesus’s closeness to our humanity. But we can also understand it in a deeper sense, and ask ourselves: When our children are in crisis and need spiritual nourishment, do we know how to give it to them? And how can we, if we ourselves are not nourished by the Gospel?” Leo asks.

“Dear brothers and sisters, in life there are moments of disappointment and discouragement, and there is also the experience of death. Let us learn from that woman, from that father: Let us go to Jesus: He can heal us, He can revive us. Jesus is our hope,” the pope says.

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