The Healing Touch

To the Editor,

On Monday past, I had the privilege of participating in the monthly “Interfaith Aids Ministry” service of healing at St James Episcopal Church in Danbury. It was my occasion to coordinate and lead the service in which the Sacred Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity as well as other reflections focused on the gentle and healing touch of Jesus.

Several weeks ago, in early January, I heard a deacon from a nearby church read and reflect on the story of Jesus’ responding to a man with leprosy (Mk. 1/40). Now, we can all agree that the man didn’t have AIDs… it was leprosy… but one can imagine, either way, that this guy would have been treated (or mistreated) as an outcast, an “untouchable,” in most civilized countries of the world. He simply asked Jesus to heal him and the Lord reached out and touched him, making him whole (in body, yes, but more importantly, as a total person). Damian of Molokai got the message, as did Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

We are reminded of the late Father Henri Nouwen (author of The Wounded Healer) who once wrote: “We feel uncomfortable to enter into someone’s pain… Still, when we ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean most to us, we often find that it is those, who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen to share our pain and touch our wounds, with a gentle, tender hand.” We might also be aware of John O’Donohue who, in his book Anam Cara, i.e. “soul friend,” writes: “If you have everything the world has to offer but if you have never felt the compassionate touch of tender love, then you are the poorest of the poorest of the poor. No matter where we are, who we are, what we are… we all need the touch of a gentle, tender, loving hand” (soul friend). Jesus proved himself as a soul friend to that seemingly untouchable outcast.

Several years ago, Father Raymond Brown, world renowned bible scholar, was giving a talk in Wilton, CT, concerning the Passion and Resurrection accounts in John’s gospel. The question was asked about the downplay of the liturgical portion of the Last Supper (the Synoptic Gospels, i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke, present more detail). John’s account focuses mostly on the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus. His answer was most fitting for this setting, I think, in that the Christian Holy Week is very close behind us. Brown stated that anyone can celebrate liturgy… but not everyone is willing to wash other people’s feet. This was an important mission of the early disciples and, lest we forget, it is also ours.

At the service cited above, people did come forward and wash one another’s hands, quite unlike the symbolic ablutions of Pontius Pilate, namely, to abandon his responsibility to truth and compassion. While crosses and tombs continue to exist in people’s lives, we are all commissioned to go out into the world and extend the gentle, healing touch of Jesus, the Christ. A continual Happy Easter to all!

The Reverend Leo McIlrath

Corpus Christi: a catholic community

13 Sugarloaf Road, Sandy Hook                                   May 3, 2000