Today's readings are here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011912.cfm
In today's Gospel, the crowds pressed upon Christ constantly in an attempt to touch him. It is amazing that we physical human beings can actually touch the God who is pure spirit because he became physical in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Human love needs to express itself through the body and touch the one it loves. How do we physically touch Christ today? We touch Christ, and are touched by him, in the seven sacraments, especially Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, since those are the sacraments we repeat the most.
In Reconciliation, the priest stands in the person of Christ, so he is the physical presence of Christ. When the priest pronounces the words of absolution, he speaks for Christ, which is another way of saying that Christ speaks through him. Christ's words, which are spoken by the priest and which we can hear with our physical ears, bring us forgiveness and healing.
In the Holy Eucharist, the physical appearances of bread and wine, which we can see, taste, and touch, point to the deeper reality of the body and blood of Christ, which are present under those appearances. In Holy Communion, Christ touches us in such a way that he is not only inside of our souls, but also our bodies.
God understands that we are physical beings whose faith in his presence and activity in our lives is strengthened when we see physical signs of his presence and activity; therefore, he gave us sacraments: physical things that make God and his saving work present in our lives.
If we want to see and touch Jesus the way the people of his day saw and touched him, then we will have to wait until heaven. For now, he has given us the sacraments, which reveal his presence differently than, but just as fully as, when he walked the earth 2,000 years ago.
May God give us the grace to be among those "who have not seen but believe".
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