Did you
know that YOU have healing power, literally at your fingertips? The simple act of touching – not necessarily
in a romantic manner – is so powerful that it can slow your heart rate,
decrease your blood pressure, and strengthen your immune system!
Our
culture is not very affectionate, and we are losing out on the benefits of
regular physical interaction with others. The healing power of touch is so necessary for
life that babies not touched regularly don’t grow and develop normally, and
children who are not lovingly touched enough are more likely to be violent as
adults.[1]
Study
about disability stories in the Bible has grown in recent years. Such works
distinguish between impairment (a condition) and disability (the effects of such, sometimes
socially imposed). Leprosy in the Bible is not Hansen’s disease
as most people know today. The Hebrew
word (sara at) is a ritual term for a variety of conditions that affect
people, clothing, and even walls (mold, fungus). For these reasons, a term such as “defilement” may be a better designation.
When I
first started my job as Operation Director at a soup kitchen, I spent time
studying staff, volunteer & client interaction. It was a tenuous and sometimes violent
culture. Many volunteers, good-hearted
as they were to serve, were not prepared to engage the often unkempt, odorous, &
often intoxicated clientele. The clients
were treated like community lepers, a defiled people managed by societal rules,
much like the lepers read of in scripture.
Over time this culture changed as the staff was trained to embrace the
clients where they were at, to treat the clients as “customers” and as far
as their comfort level would allow, touch the client. A handshake, hand on the shoulder, it even grew
to hugs as the clients started respecting themselves more and more.
Today’s
story of the leper remains timeless in its teaching, beyond our noting that it
embraced a myriad of illnesses in the ancient world. It calls us to break down lingering
stereotypes and prejudices about others and to promote justice and inclusion. Recall how Jesus sought the company of those
living on the fringe. More than physical
cures, his loving touch restore persons to their rightful place in
community. Genuine healing demands the
removal of oppressive systems, personal & institutional, in all their
forms.
[1] https://bodyecology.com/articles/healing_power_of_touch.php, Body Ecology “The Proven
Healing Power of Touch” © 2018
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