John Chrysostom, On the Beginning of the Indiction

As I was speaking, he touches me, even though I have drawn back; he knows, that being altogether unworthy, I could not bear the sight. What then? I will make a hidden approach, 59.577 honoring him in my mind, and not being insolent with my gaze, I will come up from behind and touch his tunic; this alone is sufficient for me for healing, if I succeed; for surely it too is filled with the power of the one who wears it. For the garment of life cannot fail to also send forth rays of salvation.

Moses was great among the prophets, and a chastiser of a difficult people, but still a man; this one is his master, and a lover of mankind. If then the rod of the servant cut the Red Sea, making walls in the waters, how would the hem of the Master not turn to stone the streams of blood? Elijah was zealous, and a fervent servant of God, but he too was of one nature, and yet he had a mantle as a worker of wonders. Again Elisha, having inherited the grace of his teacher with an addition, restrained the streams of the Jordan with the mantle. If then the grace among the prophets is so great, how great will be the power of the one prophesied by them? Why do I not say it briefly? Peter's shadow heals; and will not the garment of Christ heal? I perceive how much the mere resolving to do it has restrained the running sickness for me. O faith, that grants no delay to the suffering! For she only believed, and the warring thing fled; she believed, and the contentious beast did not speak against it; she believed, and the ever-flowing spring of blood was dried up, as if blinded by some invisible cautery. But she touched the garment, and drew near to the outward things; but he knew the inner thoughts. She invisibly drew out the healing for her body; but the Savior made public the beauty of her soul; for he did not allow such untriumphed beauty of piety; he did not permit a spark of righteousness to be given over to the night of oblivion. The narrative of the Gospels has granted to life the faith of one woman, who nobly plundered God with her unwavering mind. Who is she that is honored for her faith as for a theft? The faith of the woman anticipated the thief; before his tongue, her 59.578 hand is praised; before he plundered paradise with his voice, she robbed the provider of the kingdom in silence.

For Jesus, he says, knowing the power that had gone out from him, asked the disciples, "Who touched me? how did you not know of the theft? how were you unaware of the robbery? who touched me? who, for her sickness, became rich with health from my treasures? who touched me? What are you saying, O Master? You have given, and you do not know the one who received? You saw the faith, and you did not recognize the one who believed? You perceived the hidden mind, and you did not observe the visible appearance? Who touched me? Who touched you? on whom did you place the medicine of your power? to whom did you send out the healing, Master? You drove out the suffering, and you did not know the one who was saved? Who touched me? who touched me with her thought before her hands, what thought laid hold of my divinity? who is this righteous robber of my power? who has rekindled his extinguished lamp of salvation from my torch? Who touched me? Either I learn from you, or I teach. I wished to run to the end of the subject; but the time now reserves another day of teaching for the miracle. For if she, having been warred against by the suffering for twelve years, did not loosen the tension of her endurance, shall we not remain for one other day with the long struggles of the woman? whose faith even the company of the martyrs emulated, not by touching the master's hems, but by divesting themselves even of the body itself for Christ's sake. Therefore, let us also, beloved, rouse up our minds to the zeal of a like faith; let us not become worse than one foreign woman, if we have enjoyed more sights of piety than she. For her it was sufficient only once to touch the garment; but we, every day, as you know, the body of the Savior

λαλούσης ἐμοῦ, ἅπτεται, κἂν ἀφέστηκα· οἶδεν, ὅτι πάντως ὡς ἀναξία τὴν θέαν οὐκ ἤνεγκα. Τί οὖν; Λανθάνουσαν ποιήσομαι πρόσοδον, 59.577 καὶ τῇ γνώμῃ τιμῶσα, καὶ οὐ καθυβρίζουσα τῇ ὄψει, κατόπιν ἅψομαι τοῦ χιτῶνος ἐλθοῦσα· ἀρκεῖ μοι καὶ τοῦτο μόνον, ἂν ἐπιτύχω, πρὸς ἴασιν· πάντως γάρ που καὶ αὐτὸς τῆς τοῦ φοροῦντος ἐνεργείας πεπλήρωται. Οὐ δύναται γὰρ τὸ τῆς ζωῆς περιβόλαιον μὴ καὶ αὐτὸ σωτηρίας ἀποπέμπειν ἀκτῖνας.

Μέγας ἦν ἐν προφήταις Μωϋσῆς, καὶ λαοῦ δυσκόλου σωφρονιστὴς, ἀλλ' ὅμως ἄνθρωπος· οὗτος δεσπότης ἐκείνου, καὶ φιλάνθρωπος. Εἰ οὖν τοῦ δούλου ἡ ῥάβδος τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν διέτεμε θάλασσαν, τειχοποιίαν ἐργασαμένη ἐν τοῖς ὕδασι, πῶς οὐκ ἂν τοῦ ∆εσπότου τὸ κράσπεδον πετρώσῃ τῶν αἱμάτων τὰ ῥεύματα; Ζηλωτὴς ὁ Ἠλίας, καὶ θερμὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑπηρέτης, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς εἷς ὑπῆρχε τῆς φύσεως, καὶ ὅμως μηλωτὴν εἶχε θαυμάτων ἐργάτιν. Αὖθις Ἐλισσαῖος κληρονομήσας μετὰ προσθήκης τοῦ διδασκάλου τὴν χάριν, ἐχαλίνου τῇ μηλωτῇ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου τὰ ῥεῖθρα. Εἰ οὖν τοσαύτη παρὰ τοῖς προφήταις ἡ χάρις, πόση ἔσται τοῦ παρ' αὐτῶν προφητευομένου ἡ δύναμις; Τί συντόμως οὐ λέγω; Πέτρου ἡ σκιὰ θεραπεύει· καὶ τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἱμάτιον οὐκ ἰάσεται; Αἰσθάνομαι, πόσον μοι καὶ τὸ βουλεύσασθαι μόνον τὴν τρέχουσαν ἐχαλίνωσε νόσον. Ὢ πίστεως, ἀναβολὴν μὴ παρασχούσης τῷ πάθει! Ἐπίστευσε γὰρ μόνον, καὶ τὸ πολεμοῦν ἐδραπέτευεν· ἐπίστευσε, καὶ τὸ φιλόνεικον οὐκ ἀντεῖπε θηρίον· ἐπίστευσε, καὶ ἡ τῶν αἱμάτων ἀένναος ἐξηράνθη πηγὴ, καθάπερ ὑπό τινος ἀοράτου τυφλωθεῖσα καυτῆρος. Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν ἱματίου καθήπτετο, καὶ τοῖς ἔξωθεν παρήγγιζεν· ὁ δὲ τοὺς ἔνδοθεν λογισμοὺς ἐπεγίνωσκεν. Ἐκείνη μὲν ἀφανῶς τῷ σώματι τὴν θεραπείαν ἐξήντλησεν· ὁ Σωτὴρ δὲ αὐτῆς τὸ ψυχικὸν ἐδημοσίευσε κάλλος· οὐκ εἴασε γὰρ τοιαύτην εὐσεβείας ἀθριάμβευτον ὡραιότητα· οὐκ ἀφῆκε δικαιοσύνης σπινθῆρα λήθης παραδοθῆναι νυκτί. Ἐχαρίσατο τῷ βίῳ ἡ τῶν Εὐαγγελίων διήγησις, μιᾶς γυναικὸς πίστιν, Θεὸν καλῶς συλησάσης τῇ ἀδιστάκτῳ γνώμῃ. Τίς ἡ διὰ κλοπὴν ὡς πίστει τιμωμένη; Προέλαβε τὸν λῃστὴν ἡ πίστις τῆς γυναικός· πρὸ τῆς ἐκείνου γλώσσης ἡ ταύτης 59.578 εὐφημεῖται παλάμη· πρὶν ἐκεῖνος φωνῇ συλήσῃ τὸν παράδεισον, ἐλῄστευσεν αὕτη τῆς βασιλείας τὸν χορηγὸν τῇ σιωπῇ.

Γνοὺς γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν ἐξελθοῦσαν δύναμιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἐπηρώτα τοὺς μαθητὰς, τίς μου ἥψατο; πῶς οὐκ ἔγνωτε τὴν κλοπήν; πῶς ἠγνοήσατε τὴν λῃστείαν; τίς μου ἥψατο; τίς νόσου ἐκ τῶν ἐμῶν θησαυρῶν ὑγείαν ἐπλούτησε; τίς μου ἥψατο; Τί λέγεις, ὦ ∆έσποτα; σὺ δέδωκας, καὶ τὴν δεξαμένην οὐκ οἶδας; τὴν πίστιν εἶδες, καὶ τὴν πιστεύουσαν οὐκ ἐγνώρισας; τὴν λανθάνουσαν κατενόησας γνώμην, καὶ τὴν φαινομένην οὐκ ἐσκόπησας ὄψιν; Τίς μου ἥψατο; Τίς σου ἥψατο; τίνι τὸ φάρμακον τῆς ἐνεργείας ἐπέθηκας; τίνι τὴν ἴασιν ἐξέπεμψας, ∆έσποτα; Τὸ πάθος ἐδίωξας, καὶ τὴν σωθεῖσαν ἠγνόησας; Τίς μου ἥψατο; τίς με τῇ διανοίᾳ πρὸ τῶν χειρῶν ἐψηλάφησε, τίς μου κατέσχε λογισμὸς τὴν θεότητα; τίς ὁ δίκαιος οὗτος τῆς ἐμῆς ἐνεργείας λῃστής; τίς αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐσβεσμένης σωτηρίας τὸν λύχνον ὑπανῆψεν ἐκ τῆς ἐμῆς λαμπάδος; Τίς μου ἥψατο; Ἢ μάθω παρ' ὑμῶν, ἢ διδάσκω. Ἐβουλόμην πρὸς τὸ τῆς ὑποθέσεως πέρας δραμεῖν· ὁ καιρὸς δὲ λοιπὸν ἑτέραν τῷ θαύματι φυλάττει διδασκαλίας ἡμέραν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκείνη δωδεκαέτη χρόνον πολεμηθεῖσα τῷ πάθει, τὸν τῆς ὑπομονῆς οὐκ ἐξέλυσε τόνον, ἡμεῖς ἄλλην μίαν ἡμέραν τοῖς μακροῖς ἀγῶσι τῆς γυναικὸς οὐκ ἐναπομείνωμεν; ἧς τὴν πίστιν καὶ ὁ τῶν μαρτύρων δῆμος ἐζήλωσεν, οὐ δεσποτικῶν κρασπέδων ἁψάμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα διὰ Χριστὸν ἐκδυσάμενοι. Καὶ ἡμεῖς τοίνυν, ἀγαπητοὶ, πρὸς ζῆλον τῆς ὁμοίας πίστεως τὰς ἡμετέρας διαναστήσωμεν γνώμας· μὴ γενώμεθα χείρους μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀλλοφύλου, εἰ εἰς εὐσέβειαν πλέον ἡμεῖς ἢ ἐκείνη ἀπελαύσαμεν θέας. Ἐκείνη μόνον ἤρκεσεν ἅπαξ ἱματίου καθάψασθαι· ἡμεῖς δὲ καθ' ἑκάστην, ὡς ἴστε, τὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος σῶμα