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Who touched me?
God’s movement to the wounded, Divine love overcoming wrath
Have I lost touch with my humanity? In a world full of statistical charts numbing our senses, am I still moved by the growing numbers of people forced to leave their homes due to war and conflict? Is my heart able to be touched by the reality of people on the move these numbers represent? In a UNHCR video from World Refugee Day 2021, a female refugee in Europe answered the question What does welcoming mean to you?: “For me, being welcome means being accepted as a member of society.” Perhaps what we need today is to hear the voices of all who are fleeing from harm in search of hope with openness again.
When we turn to social media, there are loud voices shouting as if we are in a battle between good and evil. The debates about welcoming people on the move become about a battle between law-abiding citizens versus the foreigners who might threaten the security of our society. Fear — or more precisely, irrational fear — seems to be what moves us more than divine love.
During this Lenten season, I invite us to reflect on what the true battle really is and how God’s healing power is demonstrated in a seemingly hopeless situation. When we focus on the person of Christ and his work on the cross, how does God’s love touch the life of someone who is most vulnerable and cut off from life in the present? What is the image of God that will touch us anew so that we will not lose our humanity?
In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus walked the face of the earth, he came to fight the powers of sin, death, and the devil. He preached the kingdom of God coming in the here and now. His ministry involved casting out demons and healing the sick as he moved from village to village. We catch a glimpse in all these episodes of what would culminate on Good Friday: the overcoming all that separates us from God and one another through God’s sacrificial love revealed in Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ ministry was to touch the lives of those who needed it most. He traveled around the Sea of Galilee with many crowds gathering around him. He crossed over to Gentile territories considered unclean, but is also known to touch the untouchables with healing and grace in Jewish majority societies. Therefore, it is unsurprising that some took further…
