Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 329

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

The Gospels have no antiseptic scruples about the Lord's contact with people; nor did his first disciples. Saint Luke records people rushing to touch even the clothing of his missionaries: 

So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Acts 19:11

As a hospital chaplain I took all the usual precautions of hand washing and latex, nitrile, or vinyl gloves, and didn't hesitate to lay hands on the heads of patients, and then anoint their foreheads and hands with the sacred oil. Once, in Louisiana, a fellow dying of AIDS asked if I would give him a hug. "And why not?" I said. I worry more about the contamination of sin than the spread of disease. 

The Gospels reveal the reverse power of the Lord's touching. Instead of being made impure by his contact with leprosy and skin diseases, he renders the sick pure, and frees them from sin. Even the tassels on his cloak communicated healing grace. 

Psalm 91 celebrates the assurance of those who walk in the Lord during difficult times: 

You shall not fear the terror of the night

nor the arrow that flies by day,c

Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness,

nor the plague that ravages at noon.

Though a thousand fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

near you it shall not come. (verses 5-7) 

When the Angel said to Mary, "Do not be afraid," she tossed aside her fears and gave herself totally to the Lord. She said, in effect, "Totus tuus" The blind beggar Bartimaeus did the same when he tossed his cloak aside and went to the Lord. They  set the example for every disciple of Jesus. We cannot be dissuaded by fears, threats, or danger when the Spirit of the Lord takes charge of our lives.