She Reaches Out: An Exploration of the Wounds of Women Through Images of Jesus' Post-Resurrection Wounds (Jn 20:19-29) and the Healing of the Woman with the Hemorrhage (Mk 5:25-34)
Nancy Romer, MD, PhD, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL
In 2017, following allegations of sexual misconduct against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, # MeToo, a new feminist campaign, afforded a space for the voices of thousands of women who had experienced sexual assault or harassment. A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed that one in sixteen women reported that their first sexual encounter was non-consensual. In 2020, the New York Times documented a culture of sexual harassment in the Court of Master Sommeliers which confers the most elite wine certification. The list of accused sexual predators is long: Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Cuomo, Bill Cosby, newsmen Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Matt Lauer, and most recently NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson.
These public discussions and exposés of violence and power perpetrated on women are not remarkable because the violence is new, but rather because the public discussion of the issue is new. The continued accusations of sexual assault are a testament to the fact that women, despite the gains of feminists, are still seen as sexual objects. Misogyny is alive and well in US culture.
Despite much medical and psychological research on female assault, many women still feel isolated and shamed, and both health care providers and spiritual advisors often feel their attempts to attend these women are inadequate. The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG), recognizing that their members are usually the first to encounter women after assault, produced a Committee Opinion in 2019, which acknowledges the pervasive problem of sexual assault and recommends that health-care providers who see women employ universal screening for sexual assault. And yet, the Chronic Pelvic Pain/Endometriosis Working Group (CPPE), issued management guidelines for chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in 2002, which sidestepped the contribution of sexual assault to CPP. While noting that a significant proportion of women with CPP have a history of sexual assault, the working group felt it was beyond the scope of their work to address this contributing factor. On paper, women’s health practitioners are encouraged to screen for assault, but in practice the issue is often neglected.
This paper uses the Scriptural accounts of Jesus’ post resurrection wounds (Jn 20:19-29) and the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark’s Gospel (Mk 5:25-34) to explore these wounds of misogyny in an attempt to provide a safe space for healing. The presence of Jesus’ wounds after the resurrection reveals the importance of wounds to his, and by reference our, identity. The transformation of His wounds by the resurrection, is a promise for transformation of women’s wounds. This is a transformation that reinforces the significance of the wounds, and recognizes the contribution they make to the woman’s identity. It is a transformation that affirms the injustice of their wounds while promising healing by means of God’s grace. If transformation is dependent on God’s grace it still requires initiation by the wounded woman and here the image of the woman with the hemorrhage becomes helpful. This image leads to a theology of healing which begins with women’s agency, for the woman with the hemorrhage initiates the contact with Jesus which results in her cure. In a similar manner, the healing process for wounded women needs to be initiated by the woman herself. It is through reaching out to Jesus and opening her wounds to God’s grace that a woman can be healed.
These reflections offer spiritual and medical providers with an approach to supporting and accompanying women on their journey of healing. This approach reinforces the agency of women in their own healing and advocates for a supportive role for providers, in contrast to a role of healer or fixer. This paper makes the argument that it is not the role of providers to heal these women, but rather our role is to accompany them on their journey, in their own time and place.
These public discussions and exposés of violence and power perpetrated on women are not remarkable because the violence is new, but rather because the public discussion of the issue is new. The continued accusations of sexual assault are a testament to the fact that women, despite the gains of feminists, are still seen as sexual objects. Misogyny is alive and well in US culture.
Despite much medical and psychological research on female assault, many women still feel isolated and shamed, and both health care providers and spiritual advisors often feel their attempts to attend these women are inadequate. The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG), recognizing that their members are usually the first to encounter women after assault, produced a Committee Opinion in 2019, which acknowledges the pervasive problem of sexual assault and recommends that health-care providers who see women employ universal screening for sexual assault. And yet, the Chronic Pelvic Pain/Endometriosis Working Group (CPPE), issued management guidelines for chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in 2002, which sidestepped the contribution of sexual assault to CPP. While noting that a significant proportion of women with CPP have a history of sexual assault, the working group felt it was beyond the scope of their work to address this contributing factor. On paper, women’s health practitioners are encouraged to screen for assault, but in practice the issue is often neglected.
This paper uses the Scriptural accounts of Jesus’ post resurrection wounds (Jn 20:19-29) and the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark’s Gospel (Mk 5:25-34) to explore these wounds of misogyny in an attempt to provide a safe space for healing. The presence of Jesus’ wounds after the resurrection reveals the importance of wounds to his, and by reference our, identity. The transformation of His wounds by the resurrection, is a promise for transformation of women’s wounds. This is a transformation that reinforces the significance of the wounds, and recognizes the contribution they make to the woman’s identity. It is a transformation that affirms the injustice of their wounds while promising healing by means of God’s grace. If transformation is dependent on God’s grace it still requires initiation by the wounded woman and here the image of the woman with the hemorrhage becomes helpful. This image leads to a theology of healing which begins with women’s agency, for the woman with the hemorrhage initiates the contact with Jesus which results in her cure. In a similar manner, the healing process for wounded women needs to be initiated by the woman herself. It is through reaching out to Jesus and opening her wounds to God’s grace that a woman can be healed.
These reflections offer spiritual and medical providers with an approach to supporting and accompanying women on their journey of healing. This approach reinforces the agency of women in their own healing and advocates for a supportive role for providers, in contrast to a role of healer or fixer. This paper makes the argument that it is not the role of providers to heal these women, but rather our role is to accompany them on their journey, in their own time and place.