January 15: Touch / Tocar

Often in the Gospels, Jesus heals people by means of His words. In healing a leper in Mark 1, 40-45, however, Jesus not only spoke to him, but He touched him. In touching the leper, Jesus did what no one else would have done.

For obvious reasons, people kept lepers at a distance, and lepers were expected to keep their distance from others. Jesus, however, kept no one at a distance, not even lepers. No one was beyond His reach. No one was untouchable.

Jesus came to touch our lives in a very tangible way – all of our lives, regardless of our condition. The leper in Mark 1 wasn’t sure whether Jesus wanted to heal him, as is clear from his opening words to Jesus, “If you want to, you can cure me.” Jesus showed, in fact, He wanted to heal him, by touching him.

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So, the Lord wants to touch our lives too, each day, because He wants to bring life to us. Nothing we do or fail to do, no circumstance in which we find ourselves, need place us beyond His reach. As St. Paul says in Romans 8, “Nothing can come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus.” The Lord touches our lives, where we are, as we are. All we need is something of the leper’s initiative in approaching Him. What will it take for us to find that initiative today?

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La voluntad de Dios, según las acciones y las enseñanzas de su Hijo, es una voluntad de bien y de vida, y no podemos atribuirle los males que nos suceden. Eso hiere la imagen verdadera de Dios, la que nos transmite Jesús, que es la de un Padre que se preocupa por sus hijos e hijas. Y Jesús es parecido a su Padre y pasa por nuestro mundo haciendo el bien. Lo vemos en Marcos 1, 40-45 en la acción curativa del leproso, inspirada en la lástima que sintió por él.

¡Qué feliz sería nuestra comunidad si pudiéramos aceptarnos mutua y plenamente como somos, sin juzgar, sin condenar, sin envidiar, sin despreciar a nadie, sin tratar de modelar a los demás conforme a nuestra propia imagen y semejanza!