December 5/First Friday of Advent
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. ~ Matt 9.29-30
A very wise mother I know once told me that when her daughter was a teenager and conversation grew fraught, the only form of communication she attempted was a brief shoulder massage. No eye contact, no words, just the simple power of touch. This is what we see at work in the story of the two blind men in Matthew’s Gospel today. Jesus touches, and Jesus heals. In the two interwoven healing stories immediately preceding this, touch is also the medium of healing: the Lord cures the hemorrhaging woman simply through allowing her to touch the hem of his garment, and he heals the synagogue leader’s daughter when he takes her hand. While scientists may attribute the salutary effects of touch to the reduction of the stress hormone cortisol or the action of the Pacinian corpuscles that signal the brain when a touch occurs, theologically speaking, the touch of Jesus seems at once simpler and more transcendent. Both corporal and spiritual, it is the most immediate expression of the message and meaning of the incarnation. It speaks to our own complex nature as what theologian Margaret Farley RSM calls “embodied souls, inspirited bodies.” And just as the touch of Jesus signifies the intersection of his divinity and his humanity, so our own touch has the capacity to partake of the divine. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Our living as real human beings, and loving the real people next to us is, again, grounded only in God’s becoming human.” The supportive pat on the back, the wordless hug of shared grief, the comforting hand on another’s – all these have the capacity to heal, because they create human connection and allow us to express in plain yet powerful ways the love of God.
O Lord of love, May I bring comfort and peace to others through the power of a gentle touch. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120525.cfm
To hear the Choir of Norwich Cathedral, England, sing “Thine Arm, O Lord, in Days of Old,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAUQ8Z-W9bA
