“The nature of giving is best illustrated in the life of our blessed Lord, who one day was approached by a leper who asked for healing. The gospel tells us that our Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the leper. Jesus could have healed without the touch, as he healed the servant of the centurion at a distance.
Why, then, in the face of one of life’s greatest miseries and a disease from which the healthy often recoil, did the Lord cure with a touch? The Son of God made man touched the leper in order to annihilate distance between the Giver and the receiver, between Lover and the beloved, to prove sympathy by contact, to identify himself with with the woes of others.”
Fulton J. Sheen in Lent and Easter Wisdom from Fulton J. Sheen (Liguori, MO: Liguori, 2004) 10.
God did not snap his fingers or send someone to show love for him. He himself became man. He touched those suffering in horrible misery. In antiquity, Gentiles with wealth or the capacity to assist such people were instructed not to care for those who could not render service back to Rome. Additionally, Jewish leaders would have labeled such people unclean. This act of Jesus displays God’s radical generosity.
What does this have to do with us? As the hands and feet of Christ today, may we not recoil from getting our hands dirty, despite the cultural labels affixed on those who suffer for countless reasons. May we “annihilate distance…to prove sympathy by contact.” Cross this line today. Show God’s love to someone who is suffering or in difficulty through an act of generosity. Ask the Spirit to guide you or give you eyes to see this person in need.