I once heard of a member of a hospital board who would occasionally go to that hospital's emergency room with a relatively minor ailment. She wanted to see if she was given preferential treatment because of her status in the hospital.

If she was treated ahead of someone who appeared poor, or who had simply been waiting longer, she would complain to the hospital's directors. She wanted to ensure that the hospital would treat the poor and uninsured as well as they would treat a hospital board member.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus is approached by a religious leader who tells him, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." While they are on their way Jesus stops to heal a desperate, unclean, bleeding woman. She has been suffering for 12 years. Not only does Jesus heal her, he stops to speak with her and hear her story. In the meantime, the synagogue leader's daughter dies.

The hospital board member would be pleased, perhaps, that Jesus showed no partiality towards the upper class. He pays the same attention to a social outcast that he pays to the religious leader. While medical ethics might suggest that Jesus should have served the most urgent need first, he seems unfazed by that requirement. Even his disciples want to rush him on from the needy woman to attend to the dying girl.

Jesus goes on to heal the synagogue leader's daughter. To the synagogue leader, Jesus says, "Do not be afraid, just have faith." To the bleeding woman, he says, "Go your way. Your faith has saved you."

It is difficult to have faith when we are suffering, or when someone we love is suffering. We want attention --- from doctors, friends, family, God, whoever is in a position to help. And we want it now. Today's Gospel reading reminds us that Jesus doesn't always work according to our timetables or our priorities.

God does not operate like an airline, conferring elite status to those who attend the most Masses, pray the most rosaries, or serve the most needy people. There is no Platinum, Gold, and Silver membership in the kingdom of God. God works according to God's timing and priorities. When we are suffering and when we are not, we must have faith, and wait for God's blessings.

This is good news for those of us who feel more like an unclean, bleeding woman than we feel like a religious leader. We have the same access to faith, and the same access to God's healing power, as anyone else.

The challenge we all face is often to remain faithful even when it seems like God is slow to respond to our prayers and our desperation. Whether it is 12 years or 12 hours, the experience of waiting for relief, for resolution, can be horrendous. It is not easy. It is not pleasant. But it is what will save us.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.