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A number of years ago, in Lima, Peru, there was an orphanage, and when they opened the orphanage they had the resources to take care of the children but they did not have the resources to do much more than feed them and clean them. In that first year, they had ninety-seven children between the ages of three months and three years. At the end of the first year, twenty-nine of the children had died. At the end of the second year, seven of them died, and by the end of the third year, there were only twenty-nine children left, out of the first ninety-seven that they had brought in. Why do you think that the children died? It’s actually very simple. The children were not lifted. They were not hugged. They were not loved. There was no one there to do anything that a mother or a father would do. They did not have the time or the resources. The children literally died from a lack of touch.

In Topeka, Kansas, an institute did a test with another orphanage, children who had been made wards of the court, who had been abused. The children had stopped crying. All of you who are moms or dads or brothers or sisters, you know that when a baby cries, it is just an instinct that you want to lift it up. It is its way of telling us, (And they can be very manipulative too, can’t they? Hello, parents. We’ve all done this.) and so sometimes you lift them more than you should and all. These babies in the orphanage had stopped crying because they had come from abusive families and so that was why they were made wards of the court. The children had ceased to cry. They had ceased to cry because a baby knows that, if you cry often enough, someone will come. And if someone doesn’t come, what’s the point? That’s why the children had stopped crying. And so, one of the medical institiutions in Kansas realized that they wanted to do an experiment. So they had a senior retirement home not too far away and they decided to bring this good resource of grandparents, and brought them in every day to sit with the children and hold them and kiss them and hug them and love them. And guess what? The experiment worked because the babies began to cry again.

Today’s gospel, for me, is about touch, the touch of that woman who reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak, this woman who was on the outside of society. There were thirteen laws that addressed her affliction. She was on one of the lowest rungs of society. Her station as a woman would have prevented her from reaching out to Jesus... but she did. Touch. She did something that is so fundamental to our existence. Touch is real. It’s very important. You may have noticed something about me. I’m a very touchy, feel-y sort of a person. You notice that? .... Hello, are you all alive, awake?.... When I was at another parish, I remember being involved in a parish support group. One particular woman misunderstood my intentions. My family and my mom brought us up. (She was brought up in a very sort of cold family where her parents didn’t give a lot of affection.) She wanted the five of us to be as loving and as caring as possible. And so when we got our piggybacks up to bed and we got our kisses and our hugs and then I remember, at eight years old, my dad saying, “Oh, you’re too big for this anymore.” And I remember feeling very hurt and I remember my mom noticing it. I always remember it created a little bit of a distance between myself and my father. And, since my father has gone to heaven, I would do anything. I would give my right arm to put my other arm around him and just hug him and kiss him and tell him that I love him. But I don’t have that opportunity anymore and I have to do that in a spiritual sense. But, anyway, going back to this lady, back in the other parish, she came up and said, “Father, you’re in love with me.” And I said, “Sister, you must have bumped your head against a concrete wall because that is not the case. I have been caring with you. I am sorry you lost your husband and I think it’s a real tragedy for you at such a young age, but you have misunderstood my affection to mean something other than what it is.” And I thought to myself for awhile, you know, should I change who I am to become a priest? If I have to change fundamentally who I am, then I am not going to be serving to the best of my ability, given who I am. Will I be authentic? And so I had to decide to just be myself.

I came to this parish and in the first month, standing outside those doors, and this woman came up to me (You could tell. You know I am not saying everybody should be as touchy feel-y as I am or a model of it, but you have to be yourself.) and so I am standing out there and she came up to me and said, “Father, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. I’m really angry.” And I thought, “Whoa! OK. I got it.” So she stood back. I continued to greet other parishoners .... in my usual manner. This lady approached me, grabbing my arm, and said, “Father, you do it to everybody.” I said, “What were you thinking?” But she said, “I’m going off on two weeks vacation. I’m so glad because I really have to think and pray about this.” It really bothered me a little bit because I’m thinking, “Oh, here’s this issue coming up again, and do I need to be real or do I just sort of walk around like this. You know?” It’s like, during the sex abuse crisis, when the kids would come up and hug you and then you go, “My God!” You’re looking around to see what’s going on because there are other tapes playing. Nothing to do with me, but there are tapes playing about what it all means. And so she came back after two weeks and she came to me and said, “Father, I have thought about this and I’ve prayed about it. My father abused me all my life, as a child, as a young girl, and a priest did the same. So when a man in authority like you comes up to me to hug me or to kiss me, these bells, these alarms are flying.” And, at that moment, I give her a hug! And I’ve done it with her ever since and we kind of have an understanding now and I actually called her yesterday and asked her, was it OK if I used this story to illustrate a point and I could talk about this issue.

There are other things we could have talked about this morning. But, in the same way if we celebrate marriage, fifty percent of the people who are going to be sitting in church are going to have experienced the sadness of divorce. Is that a reason not to talk about marriage and to celebrate marriage? No. And so, we have to talk about the issues of touch and what it means. I think in our society it has been the true gift of married life and of the love that is expressed, that is proper to marriage, a good and wonderful gift. It’s unitive. It’s an expression and symbol of Christ’s love. But the gift of touch has been over-sexualized in our society. Just look at everything on the TV. Sex sells! Touch is equated with sex ..... in many commercials. Tell me you’re not all looking at the same TV programs I’m looking at. And so, that gift, that incredible gift that we have and that incredible need, is sort of trivialized and made to feel dirty and wrong.

John Paul II, in his pontificate, over a hundred twenty-nine different audiences, spoke about the theology of the body. He spoke about Creation as the first sacrament. And we are made in the image and likeness of God, and Christ is that image of God. He is the new Adam. He is the model for us. And so he was comfortable with touch. He was very comfortable with touch. He allowed others to touch him, breaking through barriers, breaking through laws and rules and regulations. He went in and he said, “Do not be afraid.” to the father of the little girl. “Have faith.” And he broke another Jewish law - of impurity, by touching a dead body. But that touching of the body, of bringing that child back is us being brought back to life in Christ, in a very powerful way. This moment prefigures the Resurrection. It is the Pascal Mystery. It is what we are called to. Our sacraments are just loaded with communication through touch. We are in essence a very touchy, feel-y, sensory Church. We have held onto all of that reality all the way along. We will hold hands in a little while during the Lord’s Prayer, a very powerful expression of community. We will come to this altar and we believe that we are taking the Body and Blood of Christ in a very intimate touch and we are bringing that into ourselves and then we are carrying that out to the world to be Christ to others.

All through the sacraments, just think about it, the touching and the signs and the symbols. One of the most powerful ones is in ordination where the touch is so important, according to the bishops and the magisterium of the Church. When I had the bishop of Oakland, John Cummings, lay his hands on me, another bishop laid hands on him and another bishop who has long since gone to heaven laid hands on him. And all of the bishops, all the way back to Christ and the apostles.... The sense of touch is all over the place. And it is so incredibly important that we honor this great gift. We recognize it and we celebrate it, and we recognize it as a gift of God in our lives.

I think of what someone who knows better says about the gift of life (I have this learned by heart but there’s no way I’m going to attempt to say it.) It’s a quote from Nelson Mandella who was in a prison, as you know, for thirty years, and in his inaugural address, that sense of how faith and belief in the gift of God in our lives.... And he said in his inaugural address, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are more powerful beyond all measure. It is our light and not our darkness that frightens us sometimes. We ask the question, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, fabulous or beautiful?’ “ (He is talking about him now, not me.) “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who am I not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are born to manifest the glory of God within us, not just some of us, but everyone. When we let our light shine, our humanity, our love, we unconsciously give others the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from fear...” (and these are my words, “liberated from fear of touch”) “...of our true humanity, of our love, our presence automatically liberates others.”

As we approach this altar, as we touch Christ and as he touches us, let us celebrate the gift of love and touch in our lives. Let the Church say “Amen.” ..... “Amen” (from the congregation)