Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Touching the Untouchable

In today’s Gospel, what stands out is not simply that Jesus heals the leper. What strikes us even more is that before healing him, Jesus touches him. In the time of Jesus, lepers were feared, isolated, and forced to live apart from others. People kept their distance. No one would willingly touch them. Yet Jesus does exactly that. He reaches out and touches the person everyone else avoids.

Perhaps this Gospel has always stayed with me because of experiences I have had throughout my life. When I was in the eighth grade, I had the privilege of meeting Father Cesare Colombo, a missionary priest of the PIME missionaries who dedicated his life in Burma caring for those suffering from leprosy. Even at that young age, I remember being struck by the witness of someone who freely chose to spend his life among people whom society had rejected.

Years later, while on a mission trip in Papua New Guinea traveling from island to island with a bishop, I had another experience that brought this Gospel to life. One morning at breakfast, the bishop asked me if I had ever met a leper. I told him that I had not. He then pointed to a little girl who had just walked into the room and said, “She is a leper.” Before I could even process what he had said, he stood up, walked over to her, and gave her a hug. I have never forgotten that moment.

Both of those experiences helped me understand something important about Jesus. God does not love us from a distance. Jesus willingly touches the wounds that others are afraid to approach. He draws near to those who feel abandoned, forgotten, or excluded.

The Gospel also invites us to look at our own lives and ask an important question: Who are the people we keep at a distance? Perhaps it is someone who is lonely and needs companionship. Perhaps it is a family member with whom we have stopped speaking. Perhaps it is someone grieving, struggling, irritating us, or someone society too easily overlooks.

The Lord does not ask all of us to travel halfway around the world to work in a leprosy colony. But He does ask each of us to notice the people around us who are waiting for someone to reach out with compassion, understanding, and love.

Today, perhaps the question we should each ask ourselves is this: Who in my life needs me to be the touch of Christ for them?