Touching/Healing (2015-02-15)

Sunday February 15, 2015, 6th Sunday Ordinary Time

[__01__]   In this Gospel selection from Mark Chapter 1, we read that Jesus stretched out his hand, to touch and to heal a man afflicted with disease, with leprosy.

We observe then the intentional extension, and touch of our Savior, toward a person otherwise abandoned in his illness.

What can we take away from this healing miracle and from the call to imitate our Lord?

[__02__]   First, such a manual touch of the hands requires precision, practice, dexterity.

We know this from our own lives ….

There is a dexterity, technique in Jesus’ movement toward this leper, this person suffering from leprosy.

We observe in this, and in other instances, that Jesus moves confidently – comfortably – toward the person otherwise abandoned, toward the sick.

Of course, he does this as he Son of God, with special grace. But we can also go and do likewise (cf. Luke 10:37, Good Samaritan) with repetitions of our own, with practice.  This may take time.

Doesn’t it require some repetition, some practice for a father or mother with his or her first child? 

Or for a nurse or doctor with his or her first patient?  For teachers with their first students?

Each of us practices in order to gain dexterity, technique in chosen work or professions or vocations, in order to gain freedom of movement.

Technique, dexterity come from practice.

The mastery of a musical instrument requires the same repetition.

So does our growth in virtue, in compassion.

To imitate our Lord in this miracle, we are called to practice with our hands with our movement, to grow in virtue.

[__03__]  Secondly, in this miracle, there is also physical strength, the extension of the hands of our Savior across a boundary, across the border.

This is not an international border but an inter-personal border.

Jesuit Father Edward Mally wrote that this miracle demonstrates Jesus’ ability to save those even excluded from Israel, those excluded from Judaism by the commandments and laws handed down through Moses.

Persons suffering from leprosy were regarded as outcasts. They were outside the border.

Jesus extended his hands across this border.

Are we not also called to do something about helping the marginalized, the unpopular classmate or teammate?

Are we not also called to obedience and to respect even to a teacher in school whom we don’t like?

Can we not go beyond – across the border of customary respect and toward the law of love and compassion?

[__04__]    In this and other miracles, Jesus operates in way that we might call in the terms of Apple / LG  / Samsung…. And mobile phones… as “hands free.”

What is the benefit of being hands free for you, for me… or for Jesus in the Gospel?  

When you and I talk on our phones using, say, “speaker phone” or “Bluetooth” devices, we do so because we are, in some way, not only speaking from the heart but also trying to be visually aware and present of everything around us.

Yes, I’m trying to put a positive spin on hands-free technology…. Nevertheless, it requires care and discipline in order to use it … in order to speak and also to see visually everything around you.

Jesus, in the Gospel, is handsfree, acknowledging the ENVIRONMENT and the SOCIETY in which he lives.

He is acknowledging that a person often needs to be healed in order for him to be touched or to gain connections with others.

In our own fear and concerns over diseases contagious or infectious, we might refrain from touch toward someone who is sick. 

We desire that the person would be healed before we would touch him or her. 

In his own free hand and handsfree way…Jesus is acknowledging that this is the way people act…but but also going beyond the customary and the familiar and reaching out to the leper anyway.

[__05__]  Speaking and acting handsfree, Jesus is also completely aware of his environment, his society, completely aware that he is being observed, being watched.

And, he gives us an example to follow. In his example, he reminds us that we are all sinners in need of God’s grace and healing.

Thus, if we were hurt or wounded by someone else’s sin or brokenness or selfishness, we are called to pray that we can remain in contact, that we can experience forgiveness, healing. We are called to risk the touch and the contact first, and pray that the Lord himself will do the healing in our lives, personally and individually and in our relationships with others.   [__fin__]