TOUCH ME AND SEE!
We
Catholics live in a world of signs. Signs are basically material,
ordinary things that point to spiritual and extraordinary realities.
Andrew Greeley calls them all as part of the “Catholic imagination.”
Objects such as statues, water, oil, bread, wine, candles, incense, and
so many others, make up this rich world of sacramentality. They are
accessible to touch, smell, taste and hearing. But they point to a whole
new world distinct from and higher than the world we are used to.
As
a little boy, I looked forward to getting sick. Funny, but I did at
times want to be sick because I got special attention from my
grandmother. Apart from some special treats that she would get me from
the neighborhood store, the most awaited one was her caring touch. She
would gently rub my head with her gnarled hands and massage my body all
over.
In
retrospect, I don’t know exactly at this point whether it was the
Medicol (or Cortal) or the natural resiliency of a child that healed me
fast enough, but I do know one thing. The healing process was hastened
by the loving touch of someone who made me see not my sickness but the
love that ultimately healed me of other things worse than a raging
fever.
Our
loving and saving God touches us in both the natural and supernatural
planes. This happened when He became one like us. This still happens
when we partake of this whole complex of signs that the sacraments of
salvation are. We get to the level of the supernatural by passing
through the world of the natural.
The
Gospel passage today invites us to do what we often take for granted:
to go and touch the Lord the way He wanted us to — approach the
sacraments, be healed by His loving forgiveness in confession, reach out
and touch Him bodily, sacramentally, spiritually and truly in the Holy
Eucharist, hear His mystical Body, the Church, and rally behind Her
teachings. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. “Touch and see!” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: What is your form of connection to God? How do you feel and touch Him?
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us the sacraments that allow us to reach out and feel Your care and love for us.
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