1 July 2012 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Wisdom 1: 13-15, 2:23-24 + Psalm 30 + 2 Corinthians 8: 7, 9, 13-15 + Mark 5: 21-43
These Gospel verses have brought back some childhood memories over the past several days as I have sat with them. The sound of my mother’s voice came back to me and I sat and laughed one afternoon at how quick, how often, and sometimes how loudly she would say: “Don’t touch that!” It’s a wonder I have any feeling in my fingers; they were so sensory deprived as a child! Where ever we went, my sister and I were constantly warned: “Don’t touch anything”. From other people’s homes to the grocery store, the warning was the same: “Don’t touch!” Then off to school we would go hearing the same message: “Don’t touch anybody and don’t touch their stuff.” So, I can tell by looking at you that you have heard the same thing: “No touching!”
That is exactly how people at the time of Jesus grew up. They did not touch anything or anyone. Doing so made them “unclean” and there were serious consequences to that. The consequences were seperation from the community and loss of identity which was a very important thing. The whole identity of Israel was shaped by law, and much of that law was expressed in terms of touching. If you did not touch, you stayed in. If you touched you were out. Then along come Jesus.
He must have had a different kind of mother than we did, because Jesus was a “toucher”. He not only touched, but people wanted to touch him; and we hear about that today. As we have come to understand, with Jesus everything gets turned around. Suddenly touching brings people in rather than putting people out. Now touching restores rather than excludes. Now touching makes clean rather than unclean. With Jesus, the entire law that so shaped and identified old Israel is finished. It is now reversed. In the new Israel, the Church, touching and being touched is what matters. What is announced by this Gospel is that our relationship with Jesus is the heart of our identity, not our relationship to the old law. Now it will be a matter of how strictly and how faithfully we follow Jesus that keeps us pure and makes us holy, not how strictly and carefully we follow ritual behavior and rules. We all know a lot of people who keep the rules and are far from Jesus. I am uncomfortable around those kind of people. What keeps us clean and holy is being touched by Jesus and touching Jesus. This Church that we have become is a people who marked, identified, and recognized as having been touched by Jesus and therefore as people willing to touch others.
All touching is not a matter of hands and fingers. I can’t count the times that I have been touched by you, your kindness, your consideration and concern. Not a week goes by in my life that I do not hear someone tell me how they were touched by our liturgy, our prayer, the message of a homily, or by the presence of Christ in the Sacraments we celebrate. Our ministry and this work of Jesus we continue is still about touching: touching the poor, touching the lost, touching those who are sick and those who are tired of being alone looking to be recognized, respected, and honored.
Think this week about these two powerful stories in Mark’s 5th Chapter. Those who witnessed these events must have been powerfully touched by them because they recall the details so clearly. Not often in the Gospel are the very words of Jesus remembered and recorded. The Gospels were written in Greek remember, not in the language Jesus spoke. But today we hear his very words: “Talitha koum”. “Little girl, get up.” There is a touching tenderness to the sound of the words that reaches deep into us and calls us to life.
A synagoge official who has a name, and a woman without a one show us today how faith works, and what happens when you believe. In gospel terms you could hardly imagine any two people more opposite: the perfect pure accomplished and responsible official of a synagogue and an unclean woman who is bleeding! Yet inspite of their difference, they have something in common: Trust. They trust that Jesus Christ will break the rules and touch them with his mercy, and he does, then and still today.
In spite of the old rule: “Don’t touch”, those of us who have been touched by Jesus Christ may and should touch and be touched so that we may be lifted up to life. This is who we are. This is why we are here. This is what it means to be a Catholic and be at Eucharist: a people touched by God through His only Son, a people willing to reach out and touch others. Believing is not just about doctirnes and dogmas, it is about trusting and being touched. It is about the kind of tenderness that reaches out to us today on a hot summer weekend and says “Get up little one.” And then he says that she should be given something to eat.
Look at this altar table. In a few moments we will be given something to eat. Here we shall be touched and we shall dare to touch the divine. Just as it was then, so it is now: astonishing!