Homily for September 10, 2019

The last line of today’s Gospel reading is both simple and powerful at the same time: “Everyone in the crowd sought to touch Him because power came forth from Him and healed them all.” People wanted to touch this man through whom God was working so strongly. It wasn’t enough simply to hear Him or to see Him; they wanted to touch Him.

Touching the LORD is a more intimate and personal way of communicating with Him than simply hearing Him or seeing Him. The sense of touch remains important in our faith lives today. We, too, want to touch the Lord; we, too, want to be touched by Him.

It is above all, in and through the Sacraments, that we touch the LORD and allow Him to touch us and our lives. In the Eucharist, for example, as we take the Bread in our hands or on our tongue and eat it; we take the Chalice of His Blood in our hands and we drink from it, the sense of touch is very real. The touch is real, too, in other Sacraments that include the pouring of water, anointing with oil, and the laying on of hands. We touch the Lord and the LORD touches us through these Sacraments and their ministers.

Like the people in the Gospel, we, too, can experience the healing and renewing power that comes from touching Him. And, the LORD, who touches us in the Sacraments, sends us forth to touch the lives of others in generous, merciful, and life-giving ways.  For as it says in words attributed to St. Teresa of Ávila: 

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. +