Thursday after Epiphany

“The God Who Is Not Afraid to Touch”

In these days after Epiphany, the Church keeps showing us how Jesus is revealed — not just in glory, not just in big moments — but in very human encounters.

Today’s Gospel is one of those moments.

A man with leprosy comes up to Jesus. And Luke tells us something important right away: he doesn’t demand anything. He kneels. He says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
There’s trust there. And there’s vulnerability. He’s not just sick — he’s isolated, excluded, untouchable by the standards of the time.

And then comes the detail that should stop us every time we hear this passage.

Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him.

He didn’t have to do that. A word would have been enough. But Jesus touches what everyone else avoids. He places his hand where no one else would dare.

St. John Chrysostom once said that Christ touched the leper not because He needed to, but because we needed to see that no human condition is beyond God’s mercy. In other words, Jesus reveals something about God here: God is not afraid of our wounds.

That’s Epiphany.

God made visible in the places we’d rather keep hidden.

Most of us don’t walk around feeling like lepers — but we all know what it’s like to carry something we don’t want touched. Regret. Shame. A long-standing struggle. A fear we’ve learned to manage rather than heal.

And often our prayer sounds like this man’s:
“Lord, I know you can… if you want to.”

And the answer of Jesus is simple and direct:
“I do will it.”

Not someday. Not when you’ve fixed yourself.
Now.

But notice what happens next. Jesus sends the man to the priest — back into the community. Healing is never just private. God restores us so that we can belong again.

And then Luke adds one last line: Jesus would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

Even after pouring Himself out, even after healing, Jesus returns to prayer. The source matters.

So today, the invitation is quiet but real.

Bring to the Lord whatever you’ve kept at a distance — whatever you assume He wouldn’t want to touch. And trust that the hand of Christ is not withdrawn. It’s already reaching out.

Because the God revealed in Epiphany is not distant.
He is close.
And He is not afraid.