AND JESUS TOUCHED HIM

If you look at the photos of our St. Benedict's Prep students, whether the pictures hanging in the hallways or appearing in our various publications, you'll notice how many of the pictures show kids in some sort of physical contact, whether competing in a sport, engaging in a team-building exercise, praying together at morning convocation, or simply hanging around together. These pictures capture what we're all about as a school: building a community made up of diverse ages, social, religious and ethnic backgrounds.

The problem is that physical touching in this era of social distancing and latex gloves has gotten a lot of bad press. All of us are aware of how difficult life has become when we can't touch loved ones in hospitals and nursing homes, and have yo be cautious about hugging a good friend or a relative. So, without commenting on the COVID restrictions that discourage touching other peo0le, I'd like to offer a reflection on touching as we find it in the gospels.

Let's start with the gospel passage from the lectionary for yesterday (Friday):

It happened that there was a man full of leprosy

in one of the towns where Jesus was;

and when he saw Jesus,

he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said,

“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” 

Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,

“I do will it.  Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately. (Lk 5:12 ff)

Now, we all know that a leper is the personification of what a Jew meant by the word “unclean.” We shouldn't forget this when Jesus boldly stretches out his hand and touches this man who is “full of leprosy.” We can imagine the reaction among the onlookers: Some would have been shocked that Jesus took such a physical risk (social distancing was mandatory for lepers), and the Pharisees would have been horrified at seeing Jesus deliberately contracting the uncleanness of the leper. Jesus seems to be asking for trouble.

In any case there is little time for them to react, because, Luke tells us, the man is "immediately cleansed of his leprosy".

I’d like to reflect for a moment or two on the word “touched.” Hapto, the Greek verb for

“touch” is a rather energetic word. It connotes deliberateness and firm contact. Besides appearing in today’s gospel passage, the word is used when Jesus touches a paralytic in order to heal him, and when he touches the coffin of the widow's dead son. It is used when Jesus "touches" the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law and helps her to sit up in bed.

Interestingly, it’s also the word that the Risen Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, when hapto often gets translated “Do not cling to me.” This evokes an image of Magdalene doing much more than accidentally touching Jesus’s robe!

Our verb hapto can offer you and me some food for reflection. For example, imagine for a moment Jesus putting his strong carpenter’s hand on your shoulder and gripping it firmly and lovingly. Imagine what it would feel like to be touched by Jesus. What healing word would he say to you? (Presumably it would be 0ne that you had asked him to say, since most healing miracles begin with the sick person asking Jesus for help.) This is certainly worth meditating on.

There  is a second lesson in our verb as well. Jesus usually asks his disciples (including us), to imitate him. Wouldn’t this mean, then, that He asks each of us to stretch out our hand and "touch" a brother or sister who is in need of His healing? Remember by the way, that Jesus knew that he was taking a big risk when he stretched out his hand to touch that leper; so he may ask you to take such a risk as well from time to time. 

Across the space that divides me from a brother I can reach out with a kind word, or a thoughtful deed or even, if I’m not wearing my mask at the time, a warm smile.

When I take the chance and reach out that way toward a sister or a brother, Jesus promises to take that gesture and amplify it, and give it the force of that Greek verb “hapto,” so that even the simplest gesture of mine becomes, through God’s grace, the deliberate and firm touch of Jesus himself.