Craving for the tangible divine
Over 20 years ago, at St. Dominic Church in San Francisco, I volunteered to help escort and protect Mother Teresa. St. Dominic’s was where she held first profession vows for women who had gone through a two year discernment program and in mutual decision with the formation team were entering the Order of Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa serving those who are the poorest of the poor.
It was a remarkable experience trying to protect the tiny frail spiritual giant. Thousands flocked to see her—the streets and parking lots around the church were jammed, people tried to crash through the police guarding the entrances to the church. Most were shouting “Mother…Mother…over here…” all jostling trying to touch her and throw prayer requests and notes at her—hoping she would take their private prayer petition to the Lord on their behalf.
Mother Teresa taught us the importance of human touch—often seen videos of her work on the streets of Calcutta touching persons discarded to the curb, starving and emaciated, she knelt and connected human to human. She picked up and held babies that were deformed at birth and abandoned. “Mother,” as thousands called her, cuddled close to her frame orphans in overcrowded beds, stomachs swollen from hunger, rocking them in her frail arms. St. Mother Teresa repeatedly taught us what we all know: sensory deprivation destroys our humanity.
Touch of the Sacred: the people that clamored to touch the Saint, wherever she appeared, reflect us all. For I believe there is a strong natural desire in us to want to touch the holy, to want to be near the sacred and know that it is real—near—available. We reach out to rosaries, relics, statues, crucifixes, and the most tangible Divine holiness of all, the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist. Many of us desire that the Holy be within our reach. We rely, in faith, on the compassion and love of God. However, like the woman in our gospel today who sought to touch the cloak of Jesus; we want to touch the divine—know it is real. We draw a certain comfort with such a touch, especially in our need to be healed in numerous ways. Life can throw so many challenges our way. We become desperate to reach out for help; storm heaven offer all kinds of prayers and pleading ‘Lord help us’!
And which parent wouldn’t beg God for their child’s wellbeing like Jairus, the temple official in the Gospel passage for today? We want the divine to be divine yet tangible, human qualities and traits, relational and accessible. In God’s wisdom and providence we are given Jesus the tangible image of God. And all we have to do is look at the crucifix for compassionate hope and love. Why–because we know that Jesus suffered for us and with us in his humanity—he understands; yet at the same time is fully Divine-God with us and can heal and make things better. Jesus understands our plight. We relate to the humanity in Jesus—but rely on Him being God.
St. Paul tells us in his 2nd Letter to the Corinthians today: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”
Such sacrificial love, provides relief for us as we unite our suffering with the suffering Christ —believing that God sees us through the eyes of Jesus abiding love. That abiding love is expressed as Jesus asks a great question “who has touched my clothes?” He knew full well and yet wanted the woman to express her belief and to take ownership of her faith-for the benefit of others around her—it is testimony. If we seek to touch him, then we need to declare his reality in us—and then reciprocate. For we want many of the same things that are life giving from one another that we want from God—hope, love, compassion, and forgiveness.
And when such divine gifts are not a part of our lives there can be an internal sensory deprivation; a hunger remains unnamed and haunting our spirit. Perhaps we have deadened ourselves from making the efforts to connect with one another in our families—to reach out to resolve differences. Our anger, our hurt, is covered over, hardened—safely untouchable and we ward off healing. But we know what is needed-is the effort to reconcile.
At times when counseling couples that have lost touch with each other-over the years, bad patterns have formed and constant bickering takes place, most often the result of stored anger and disappointment, unspoken unmet needs-and fears. Passive aggressive behavior becomes the pattern of destruction w/in the marriage. One exercise I assign the couple is hand holding even if it has to be forced at first. When the bickering starts reach out to each other before it builds into more animosity and repeating the same old complaints about one another, don’t respond just look at each other in the eyes, and quietly say I love you no matter what. It can be a fresh renewal of the marriage covenant. All married couples need to remind one another why they married each other, say I love you, and rekindle romance—even at 80! The sacred touch can go beyond the hand holding, it can melt the heart.
We have been given Jesus power of reconciliation in order to stop the strife and bleeding that goes on in families. We have the power of giving hope to others by our touch and reaching out to those who are feeling alone and alienated—teenagers not feeling at home in their families, their school, their bodies. Hope by our caring for the elderly—or touching the heart of an angry spouse with a tender reminder of love.
Every day we are given choices on how to reveal the presence of Jesus Christ, the Divine in us—most often by the ways that we touch the lives of others with our lives. There are opportunities on opportunities to help extend the healing touch of the Lord if we strive to become Him for others.