What’s in a Touch    Occasionally, one gets more than he expects, in a good sense. I went to pick up my car from a repair shop, and the owner told me that there was an additional problem with the car other than the one I wanted repaired. I told him I’d do the work myself, but he said the work was already taken care of. On another occasion, I had to change a tire along a busy highway. A man pulled off the highway in front of my car, took off his jacket, and immediately began to help. More than I expected.
   St. Mark wrote about Jesus’ first ministry tour through Galilee. He doesn’t provide much information about a trip that probably took several weeks or months. However, he does describe an event in which a man, cast out of society because of his disease, leprosy, violated the law by approaching Jesus. When anyone came near a leprous person, he was to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” and retreat. This man approached Jesus, kneeling and requesting his cleansing, which he said Jesus could do if he were willing. “And having compassion, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing. Be cleansed.’” (1:41)
   First, Jesus touched the man—something strictly forbidden. By doing this, Jesus demonstrated his superiority to the Law. Second, Jesus knew that he would not be contaminated by the man. Third, Jesus demonstrated that the cleansing came through divine grace. It is likely that the man didn’t expect to be touched. There’s no record of how long that man lived as an outcast, how he sustained his life, or his previous social status. But in this condition, which one writer described as a “living death,” the leper received a touch—more than he asked for, but that seems characteristic of divine grace. Directory