The power of touch is undeniable. When two people touch
each other they share something that they did not before. For lovers
this can be an erotic sensation for sure but even a friend’s embrace,
imparts something from one to the other. Even a handshake between
strangers or steadying someone who might fall requires a certain amount
of trust and giving of oneself to another.
When we touch
each other (and I simply mean this in regards to making physical
contact) we become vulnerable to them. We enter their bubble they
in turn enter ours. Who hasn’t offered a hand shake and then realized we
don’t know what kind of hygiene practices that person follows. We could
have just received germs from them. But it’s not all bad. Who hasn’t
felt comfort in a friends touch. Who hasn’t felt
secure in another offering their arm in a dangerous place. Even a
little baby, studies have shown, rest better when in physical contact
with other people (especially with Mom).
If human touch holds such power, then how much more power is to be found in the touch
of Jesus, God Himself. It’s interesting that in today's gospel (Mk 5:21-43) about the
raising of Jarius’ daughter, he asks Jesus to “come lay your hands on
her [his daughter], so that she may be made well and live.”
“Lay your hands on her.” He knew and believed in the power of Jesus’ touch.
But on the way to his house something else happens. Someone “touches” Jesus. It’s the woman who had “had a flow of blood for twelve years.” She said, “ if I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” And she was. Jesus didn’t have to touch her. She didn’t even have to touch
anything more than His clothing. That was enough to change her. And it
impacted Jesus too in that he perceived that power had gone out from Him. I suspect He knew the woman would touch him
and desired to heal her, but all the same He let her come to him.
He
always makes himself available to us. He never forces himself onto us.
But sometimes He comes to us and reaches out to us like He did with
Jarius’ daughter. Other times He waits for us to reach out and touch Him. He knows what we need. In the end He is always desiring to have
that encounter with us… To go deeper with us. To reveal more of who He
is and the power to mold us… not unlike what we do with each other but
in a much larger and more profound way.
There
is another detail that catches my eye in this passage. Jarius asks that
his daughter be “made well AND LIVE.” Maybe it’s simply a figure of
speech to say it like this or the AND part is done for emphasis. I think
it could be significant though. Let’s again look at the woman who touches our Lord. She felt she was cured as soon as she reached out to touch Jesus. Still Jesus stops, asks who touched
him and she “came in fear and trembling and fell down before him”. At
this point Jesus tells her “your faith has made you well; go in peace
and be healed of your disease.”
Wait what? In
one breath Jesus states the obvious that she is healed but then says to
go and (future tense) “be healed of your disease.” But what disease if
she is already healed? Kind of similar to Jarius asking for his daughter
to be made well and also live.
I think these
are significant. The real healing and the real living is not just in the
physical sense. The real miracle is being changed inside us. The core
of who we are… not living in our own darkness but in the life and light
of Christ. That is what Jesus wants most to heal us from. That is where His touch is the most powerful.
So hear I am Lord. Touch me so I can be made well and live. Allow me to touch you so you can make me well and cure me of my disease.
Just like a good friend, Jesus knows the power of touch and just because He doesn't walk physically among us any longer doesn't mean He has overlooked our need to touch Him. What a gift it is as Catholics to be able to truly and physically touch our Lord in the Eucharist. We not only touch Him, we embrace Him as as we receive Holy Communion and He becomes part of and dwells within us.
“I am the bread of life… I
am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of
this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for
the life of the world is my flesh… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John Chapter 6)
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