“Moved with pity, He stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’” (Mark 1:40).
They say that there are five languages of love. These include words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service, receiving gifts, and quality time. Each human is supposed to prefer a certain type of love language and if you can understand what language of love a person likes then you can understand how to show them love. For example, if a person feels loved with words of affirmation, then your would speak positive words around that person to make them feel loved. If another needs physical touch, then you would stand close to them or touch them (appropriately) in order to show that person that they are loved.
For me physical touch is my least preferred language of love. My daughter and husband, who are both very “touchy” people often laugh at me when I tell them that I would like them to release me from their hug now because I do not want to be hugged any more. And yet – despite my protestations – receiving a hug, or a friendly touch or pat from someone who I care about and who cares about me, is a very powerful thing.
Now, I have been thinking about the lepers in Biblical times. In those days because leprosy was misunderstood and people did not know how to prevent the spread of the disease, a person who displayed symptoms of leprosy was confined to a leper colony. They were not allowed to approach healthy people. They were required to cover all their skin and dress in ragged clothes to mark their appearances. They would be chased out of towns and villages and would be left to die…
In other words, nobody would ever touch a leper or any of a leper’s belongings, because the leper would be considered unclean and being unclean the leper would be dangerous to healthy people who could catch the disease by touching them…
And yet, Christ not only healed the lepers, but – perhaps more importantly – He TOUCHED them…
“And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.’ But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” (Mark 1:40-45).
And that touch of God to the filthy leper occurs every single time I receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You see, when I receive that sacrament, my filthy and unclean soul reaches to my Beloved and says, “‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’”
And God does that for me – despite everything – every single time.
How much I am loved by my God… How much I am loved…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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