O.T.VI-B-Lev 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31–11:1; Mk 1:40-45

All three readings of today contain the Christian teaching on the need for social acceptance even when people are different from us. The first reading shows the ancient Jewish attitude toward leprosy and the rules for quarantining lepers. According to the Mosaic Law leapers had to dress in torn clothes, keep their hair unkempt, and their life became a long period of mourning and estrangement. Leprosy struck the healthy with terror just as Aids and Ebola have in recent times. Isolation wards are essential and the victim must not be touched by unprotected human contact.

No Jew would have ever touched a leper. The mere touch  rendered him legally impure. Jesus ignored the law. Jesus could have just spoken a healing word, he could have raised his hand to bless, without making any bodily human contact. But notice how Jesus’ gesture of touch is stressed: he stretched out his hand and touched the leper. And immediately he is healed.

Why does Jesus insist on touching him and what is the significance of this miracle? The reason for touch is simple. Jesus touched him ‘out of compassion’. He was able to sympathize with the suffering of the leper so that he willed to bring him out of his isolation. So many of Jesus’ miracles involve touch because it expresses powerfully the way the loneliness which comes with illness and stigma is overcome.

St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, understood this. At one time in his life, he had a terrible fear of lepers. Then one day when he was out for a walk, he heard the warning bell that lepers were required to ring in the Middle Ages. When a leper emerged from a clump of trees, St. Francis saw that he was horribly disfigured. Half of his nose had been eaten away; his hands were stubs without fingers and his lips were oozing white pus. Instead of giving in to his fears, Francis ran forward, embraced the leper and kissed him. Francis’ life was never the same after that episode. He had found a new relationship with God, a new sensitivity to others and a new energy for his ministry.

The Memminger Institute in Topeka, Kansas once had a fascinating experiment. They identified a group of crib babies who did not cry. It seems that babies cry because they instinctively know that this is the way to get attention. Crying is their way of calling out. These babies, however, had been in abusive situations. Their parents let them cry for hours on end and never responded. The babies eventually quit crying. It is almost as if they had learned that it was not worth trying.

So the Memminger Institute came in for an experiment. They got some people from retirement and from nursing homes, and every day these people held these babies and rocked them. The object was to get these babies to start crying again. And it really worked. Physical touch had made the difference.

Marcel Gerber was sent by a United Nations committee to study the effects of protein deficiency on Ugandan children. She found, to her surprise, that Uganda's infants were developmentally the most advanced in the world. It was only after two years of age that the children began to be seriously damaged by such things as tribal taboos and food shortages. Ugandan infants were almost constantly held by their mothers and mother surrogates. They went everywhere with their mothers. The physical contact with the mother and the constant movement seemed to be the factors that propelled these infants to maturity beyond Western standards.

Many young parents today understand this principle and make it a practice to massage their infants. That's a wise practice. We all have a need to be touched. Studies have shown that touching has physiological benefits--even for adults. One researcher made numerous studies on the effects of the practice many Christians recognize called "laying on of hands." She discovered that when one person lays hands on another, the hemoglobin levels in the bloodstreams of both people go up, which means that body tissues receive more oxygen, producing more energy and even regenerative power. 

As important as physical touch is there is another kind of touch that is even more important. It is spiritual touch. This is that special touch that influences and impacts the lives of people.

As the family of God we are called upon to reach out and touch the lives of the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely.

St Paul speaks in the second reading of respecting both Jews and Greeks. He knew too well how they could hate and stigmatize each other. But the isolating barriers which kept them apart were finally overcome through the death of Christ.

We need to tear down the walls that separate us from others and build bridges of loving relationship. Jesus calls every one of us to demolish the walls that separate us from each other and to welcome the outcasts and the untouchables of society. These include homosexuals, AIDS victims, alcoholics, drug addicts and marginalized groups such as the divorced, the unmarried, single mothers, migrant workers and the mentally ill. God's loving hand must reach out to them through us. Jesus wants us to touch their lives. When new members come to our Church, we need to reach out and communicate with them; make them feel at home in our parish. Let us pass beyond the narrow circles of our friends and peers and try to relate to those who may be outside the bounds of propriety.  Remember the old African-American children’s song reminding us that there is room for everyone in God's Kingdom: "All God's creatures got a place in the choir, some sing low and some sing higher. Some sing out loud on a telephone wire and some just clap their hands or paws or anything they've got."