St. Mark’s Gospel story and the Book of Leviticus today are about Touch. The touch denied a person accused of having a skin disease called leprosy in ancient times and the touch of Jesus, the son of God, in healing a man so accused. The leper is cured and can be reunited with humanity. Jesus is considered tainted and must leave humanity to spread the word of God and heal those in need.
Some of the greatest miracles Jesus
performed were ones in which He touched people: Simon’s mother-in-law from last
Sunday; numerous blind and deaf persons; a woman who could not stand straight;
and the servant of the high priest whose ear was cut off by Peter in the Garden
of Gethsemane to name a few. There are
also times when people touched Jesus or His clothes that were healed.
Until recently, one of the saddest stories I ever heard was from my mother who told me her son, Donald from a prior marriage, died on Christmas Eve from double pneumonia prior to penicillin. He was in an oxygen tent and she wasn’t allowed to touch him. It became the reason after her divorce to have another child while married to my father, even if the child would be adopted, as I was.
Since the beginning of the first United States recorded death from the Covid-19 pandemic on January 21, 2020, the constant sorrow voiced by those who have lost a loved one is that they were unable to be there at the end. They couldn’t hold him or her in their arms and say goodbye, just like my mother. And, how they wish they had more time to do that.
Touch! The feel of someone’s body, especially a loved one, has been denied to those who knew more than 460,000 people who passed in our country since the date listed above. I now have begun to understand the loss my mother felt when Donald died in 1929; a pain so great that it almost made her not want to go on with life.
Self-quarantining and limiting interaction with others has made it difficult for many of us to feel like a complete human. We blow kisses and give fake hugs to remind others that we love and miss them. We verbalize that we miss one another’s touches. But it is not the same. How can we “touch” others who do and don’t live with us?
Allow me, if you will to replace the word “touch” with “presence.” What the leper in our Gospel and lepers in Leviticus were missing was being present to and for others, because it was not allowed per Mosaic Law. You could not live near, visit or even be seen by others, whether you knew them or not. But, today, we have technology which allows us to be present to one another, as well as be healed.
We can Face Time on our phones, Zoom on our computers and laptops, send pictures on various media, live stream on U Tube, send cards and letters drive by peoples’ homes and honk our horns so they come out and we can then wave to them and yell back and forth to one another. In other words, we can be present and “touch” their hearts in so many ways to tell them we are there for them; that they are not forgotten.
Even for those with whom we are quarantined, we can do things for one another that illustrates we are not just stuck with each other and take that person for granted. For instance, do something that you don’t normally do: Clean the house; wash the dishes; set the table; do laundry; cook; and wash the other person’s vehicle
You also can go for walks, buy take out, play games, watch television together and pray together, to mention a few.
God created us out of love to be in relationship with Him and all that He has created. What that means is we concern ourselves with the welfare of others, whether we are close to them or don’t know them at all. We are united because God has chosen us to be that way, whatever our differences or struggles. Let us not ignore that for which He created us by denying Him, because God will deny us. Let us touch one another and be touched back through our presence to others and God.
Who knows? It might touch our heart and soul, and that presence may be the most precious touch of all during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reading 1: Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46
Reading 2: First Corinthians 10: 31 – 11: 1
Gospel: Mark 1: 40-45
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