INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 5th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “How Touching.”
The last sentence in today’s gospel - in English - has this long sentence,
“Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in
the market place and begged him that they might touch the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.” [Mark 6:56]
I began reflecting on that idea of touching - being touched - for a homily idea - for
today.
WHO TOUCHED YOU?
A good life question could be, “Who touched us?” “Who influenced our lives?” “Who has healed us?”
It could have been a great high school teacher who saw us
bullied - and they asked to see us after school one day - and asked about our
feelings, our hurt, our pain - and we told them and we were healed.
It could have been an aunt or an uncle who was there for
us when we didn’t feel our parents weren’t there for us.
It could have been a counselor, a friend, a neighbor, who
helped us because we didn’t know how to do something.
It might have been at work - our first job - and someone
took us under their wing - and they taught us how to fly.
Who touched you?
That’s a good life time question.
MOVIES, PLAYS,
STORIES, SONGS, POEMS, PRAYERS
For some it might be a movie, a play, a story, a song, a
poem or a prayer.
I’ll never forget a moment in an Arthur Miller play, The Price, when one brother says to the
other brother something like this, “You want the God-Almighty hand shake and
you’re not going to get it.” I was moved enough to say, “I’ll never do that.”
I saw a grandmother with a grandson once and she snook a
folded $20 dollar bill into his hand as he was going out the door to an outing.
I said to her, “That was nice.”
She said, “Oh yeah, I remember being with kids on a bus
ride to an amusement park when we were kids and I had no money. We were poor -
dirt poor - and I sat on benches and walked around all day and didn’t get on
any rides and I wouldn’t want any kid to feel what I felt that day.”
How touching.
ARK OF THE
COVENANT
Talk about touching - how about the Art of the Covenant -
which is central to today’s First
Reading - 1 Kings 8: 1-7, 9-13.
The Ark of the Covenant - was the sacred box of the
covenant - that held the 10 commandments. It was made of wood - 4 foot long, 2 ½
inches high and 2 ½ inches high. It was
gold plated. It held the 10 Commandments.
It was a sign of God’s presence,
Just seeing it was a powerful experience for many in
Israel when it was paraded around town and into battle or what have you. If
someone touched it they could be paralyzed or killed. Yet it was stolen - and
used in battle because it was supposed to have power.
Sacred objects send out signals of awe!
If you’re my age you’ve seen the change in touching
religious objects - chalices, hosts, communion, crumbs…. You’ve seen people
going up to the tabernacle and taking out the ciborium and bringing Christ to
the sick and the home bound.
How many Eucharistic Ministers have had life changing
thoughts and prayers and feelings in bringing Jesus to someone who is sick?
The tabernacle,
the Ark of the Covenant, up here in our sanctuary is mighty important, but Jesus is in there as food - food for us -
food for the sick - food for the journey.
CONCLUSION
The title of my
homily is, “How Touching.”
My message is to
reflect upon the touching moments, the
healing moments, the significant moments of our lives. Amen.
