For 2 years, my senior year of high school and my first year of college, I lived with my grandma and great-grandma. It was a blessing to be able to, not only know my great-grandma, but also live with her. Over that period we got very close, even to the point of calling her one of my best friends. In the last few months of her life, she got quite ill - heart, cancer and old age. I had the honor of helping to care for her on a daily basis and tried to make her comfortable as much as possible.
Each night, for the ten years I knew her and especially the 2 I lived with her, I would give her a hug and kiss as I said "goodnight". Well, in the last days of her life, being touched was painful for her. Her body was so racked in pain that the slightest touch could send her gasping in pain. One night, her pain was so great that I couldn't give her a hug as I had done for a decade because of the pain and discomfort. That night, she died.
"He stretched out His hand and Touched him"
As we heard in the first reading, lepers had to be cast out and let others know they were infected. Think about how humiliating that must have been. This man was cast out from his community, his family and friends, the temple and all normal human interaction. He was lonely and in utter darkness. He couldn't do anything he wanted or desired. Every human need, longing and desire was forbidden because of a disease he had not asked for.
It was the custom and law not to touch a leper for fear of contracting the disease yourself and for becoming impure. But, Christ did not come to follow social norms or what was popular or to be politically correct; Christ came to bring Life and Love regardless what man expected.
When the leper begged Christ to be healed, he was begging Him to be touched, to have his pain taken away, to be loved and accepted and cared for again. The leper was on the brink of death from all he had gone through and endured. Christ saw this, was moved with pity and touched him and he was healed.
Christ is showing us something fundamentally essential. He is telling and showing us that the way of life and love is not through social norms; it is not through doing what is popular or expected, and not through what is safe for me. The way of life and love is through going outside of ourselves and touching others, even if there is great risk to ourselves. Christ Himself risked being infected, made impure and cast out, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that this man needed love, healing and touch.
We are called to touch the lives and hearts of all people, regardless of who they are or the cost to ourselves. We are to operate and act outside of ourselves and give of ourselves wholly and completely without counting the cost. This is the only way to give the love of Christ to others just as He gives it to us.
I couldn't give my grandma a hug that night because the pain was too unbearable for her. But, we are called to 'hug', to love and to 'touch' others so that is hurts us. We are shown that the way of Christ is to live for others and not ourselves. The true touch of love and life is that where I risk a sacrifice of myself. We are called to offer our bodies, comforts and securities for the sake of love, just as Christ did for us.
"He stretched out His hand and Touched him"
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