A small boy, who was afraid of the dark, was not consoled by the fancy night light his parents had installed in his room, so he cried out in the dark of the night. His father came to comfort him, to calm him down with soothing words. As the boy’s father prepared to leave his son’s bedside, he said to the boy: “Remember, God is always with you.” To which the child replied: “But, I want somebody with skin on!”

We cannot long bear to be without human companionship. In a well-known study with abandoned infants, this fact has been scientifically documented. Infants deprived of human touch and companionship soon die. The same is true of the elderly who are too often pushed into nursing homes where, deprived of the companionship of family and friends, they soon fade away and die. The human spirit starves in the absence of simple companionship. To reach out and touch someone is literally life-giving. We all need someone with skin on.

Jesus is the master of the human touch. Even though He was the Son of God, he put a lot of emphasis on the human touch. Constantly, throughout His life, He was reaching out to touch people, to lay His hands upon them, and to heal them. Face to face with the fearful isolation and rejection of a poor leper, Jesus reaches out with compassion and touched him, and he was cured ( Mark 41 : 42 ). Medicine today can effectively treat leprosy, but in Jesus’ time, ignorance of the decease bred fear, hysteria, and a particularly severe treatment. Similarly, people today with severe cases of covid19 are isolated from human society. It has even got worse because the new delta strain is now affecting children who are not vaccinated. This heavy indictment for today’s elderly in nursing homes and for covid19 patients, young and old, in hospital wards throughout the world is causing more pain, deeper than the decease itself. Lets tell it like it is: strictly enforced exile separates families from loved ones and wrenches the human heart. The life sentence of many people today is to live apart, and to be deprived of the human touch.

The leper, in the scripture, had been trained from his earliest years to see his affliction as a shame and to announce his shame in order to protect the healthy ones, the very people who had exiled him and whom he longed to be with. The leper Jesus encountered ached to be cured and restored to the circle of his family. He placed his request in Jesus’ hands, and the amazing grace of Jesus turned the situation around. Jesus entered into the grief and pain of this man. He broke the ancient rules for He couldn’t resist this man’s desperate need to be touched and to be healed.

But Jesus has no other hands than yours! Whenever you reach out to touch anyone in need you are doing what Jesus commanded you to do ( Matthew 25 : 40 ). We see here that the Lord’s compassion deals in particulars. Most of the time, it only takes a small thing: a smile, a thank you, a helping hand, a visit to a sick bed, a simple phone call. But we need to wake up and come to our senses. We need to reach out now, to speak to someone, to touch someone with love, to listen compassionately, to heal.

If you want to put this message into practice, start with the people living with you, in your own house, and with those close to where you live, in your neighborhood.

This is how the human touch of compassion and healing is spread all over the world.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy