A Woman's Healing

Et cum venisset Jesus in domum Petri, vidit socrum ejus jacentem, et reliqua. Ad hoc ergo venerat ut videret febricitantem, et ideo mox cum venisset, vidit eam ac sanavit. Causa namque adventus ejus jacentis infirmitas, et non edenti necessitas fuit; quia in domo qua misera febris hominem laniabat, non cura prandii ac laetitiae, sed lacyrmarum erat effusio. Mira omnipotentis Dei dispensatio, qui etiam non quaerentes se quaerit, et non valentes ad se venire, ad eos clementer venit; quia si non ille ad nos prior venissset, nunquam ad eum redire potuissemus. Sed bene, postuqam descendit, haec mulier tetio loco curata legitur, quambis alii evangelistae alio in loco eam commemoraverint. Nihil enim interest ad historiae veritatem quis quo loco ponat, sive quod ex ordine interserit, sive quod postea factum ante praeoccupaverit; dum tamen invicem non adversentur, quod numquam reperies. Multum vero ad mysticam semper proficit intelligentiam, ut eo loco ab unoquoque, Spiritu sancto docente, singula ponantur, ut et veritas pateat operis, et doctrina spiritalis uberius appareat ex circumstantia lectionis. Nam, ut dixi, leprosus ille universum designat humanum genus, id est lepta originalis delicti coinquinatum: puer centurionis gentilitatem solam, morbo idololatriae, quasi paralysi, dissolutam, et ab omni compagine vitae pene emortuam. Quibus curatis, clementissimum erat ut mulier, quae fuerat auctor morborum et mortis, post virum curaretur et ipsa. Utrumque enim sexum Dominus curaturus advenerat. Sed prior curari debuit qui prior creatus est, tum demum et alla ab opifice nec praetermitti. Unde et Sciptura: Tenuit, inquit, manum, et dimisit eam febris. Quid putas? Nunquid verbo non potuit eam curare, quia tenuit manum ejus? Vel cur leprosum tangit, et curat verbo; hujus vero tenet manum, et continuo discedit febris? Illum ergo tangit, quod lex vetuerat, ut se supra legem ostenderet, de quo satis jam diximus. Hujus vero tenuit manum, quam mulier contra mandatum extenderat ad arborem, de qua noxium arboris gustum sumeret. Propterea ergo ratio fuit ejus tenere manum, ut vitam resumeret; quia Adam de manu mulieris acceperat mortem. Sic omnia Salvatoris concinunt opera. Justum quippe erat ut quod manus praesumentis admiserat, manus repararet auctoris, et indulgentiam reciperet quae cunctis intulerat mortem. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber V, Cap VIII Source: Migne PL 120.353c-354b

And when Jesus came into the house of Peter, He saw his mother in law cast down...1 For this, therefore, He came, that He see one fevered, and therefore as soon as He had come, He saw her and healed her. The reason for His coming was the weakness of her cast down and not because of some need for eating, because when in the house a fever had laid low a wretched invididual there was no care for feasting and joy but for a pouring out of tears. Wonderous dispensation of God, who sought out those not seeking and who came to those languishing, coming to them in mercy, because if He had not come to us before, never would we have been able to return to Him. And well it is said that after He descended, He cured this woman in third place, although the other evangelists remember her in another place. 2 For it is of no weight to the truth of history who is placed where, or in what order set, or recalled, or if that which is later is considered before, while none of them oppose the other, which you will never find. However, it is always of much cause of profit to the spiritual understanding, that in that place, by whichever one, with the Holy Spirit teaching, each thing is placed, that the truth of the work is revealed and the spiritual teaching more fruitfully appear from the circumstances of the passage. For, as I have said, the leper signified the whole human race, that is, the leper was soiled with original sin, and the centurion's boy indicated the Gentiles alone, who with the sickness of idolatry, as one paralysed and incapable, was mortified from every activity of life. Which curing, He most merciful, after curing man, cured woman, she who was the creator of disease and death. For the Lord came to cure both sexes. But it was right that He cure him who was created first, and then that the Creator pass on to her. Whence Scripture says: 'He held her hand and rid her of the fever.' What do you think? Was He not able to cure her with a word, because He held her hand? Or why did He touch the leper and cure with a word, but He held her hand and immediately the fever fled? He touched him that the old law wither away, that He show Himself over the law, concerning which we have spoken of enough before. And then He held the hand of woman, who against command had reached for the tree, from which she received the ruinous taste of the tree. Thus it was reasonable that He hold her hand, that life be restored, because Adam received death from the hand of the woman. So all the works of the Lord harmonise. Certainly it was right that the hand of the Creator restore the hand which had presumptively reached out, and so she receive forgiveness for bringing death to all. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 5, Chapter 8 1 Mt 8.14 2 Mk 1.30, Lk 4.38