Matthew 5:7

We cannot bear to be without human contact. This fact has been scientifically documented. Infants deprived of human touch and companionship soon die; the tiny human spirit starves in the absence of simple compassion. To reach out and touch someone is literally life-giving. We all need someone with skin on. Today’s beatitude: “blessed are the merciful,” can be observed in the human touch and mercy of Jesus.

The story of Jesus curing the leper in the gospel of Mark 1:40-45; brings us face to face with the mercy of the Lord. Today, medicine can effectively treat leprosy. But this was not always the case. In Jesus’ time, ignorance of the disease bred fear, hysteria, and a particularly severe treatment. The leper was shunned by human society, causing pain deeper than leprosy’s scars. The leper’s life sentence was to live apart from the rest of humanity.

The amazing mercy of Jesus turned the leper’s situation around. Jesus enters into the grief and pain of the leper. By reaching out and touching him, Jesus broke the ancient rules, and He knew He broke them. That’s the way it is with mercy; it goes beyond the demands of justice and the law. Jesus could not resist this man’s desperate boldness and great faith; He “was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him.” (Mark 1:41).

The leper was a leper no more. He could go home and join the circle of his family.

Jesus asked the man to keep this a secret, but that was asking too much, of course. The man announced the good news of the Lord’s mercy far and wide for he was delirious with joy.

Jesus teaches us that God’s mercy deals in particulars. Most of the time people ask so little of us and are so grateful. Today’s beatitude calls us to our senses-to speak, to touch, to listen.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy