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.
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.
You shall not fear the terror of the nightnor the arrow that flies by day,cNor 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)
