Touching People

this morning i got to listen to Fr. Peter's "Shepard of Souls" pod cast. he did a second interview with Kim Ladue, who is a holistic nurse. she spoke about how our illnesses are not just physical but can have an emotional and dietary relationship with each other.
she talked about how when a normal baby is born they first cry then are held by their mothers and fed. there is a very strong nurturing feeling that goes along with food and sometimes the things we eat have to do more with our need for comfort then just our need for nourishment.
we live in a world that does not allow us to really express our selves in nurturing ways.lack of feeling has become an epidemic in this country.As we age we lose more and more friends and relatives and have no one to replace them with.many elderly people who attend Sunday service may only feel the touch of another human being on Sundays before, during or after service and not again until the next Sunday. imagine how important your simple touch is that pat on the shoulder,hug around the neck or kiss on the check can be to some one who is starving for love.
the other day one of our terminally ill patients asked that we sit her up in her chair. before i left she told me she was frightened .when i finished my med pass i went and sat with her for about ten minutes. i held her hand and knowing she was an animal lover, read her an article in the news paper about how many priest are
now getting animals in their rectorys and its positive influence on not only the priest but the people who come to see them. when her son stopped by at lunch time she seemed less frightened and i left them to visit with each other.
our touch is so important that even when Jesus healed he did it with his hands.he didn't have to do this he could simple have said "you are cured go on your way" but he understood the human person in order to be fully healed needed the sense of another persons touch,many times after he healed someone he also encouraged them to eat and drink not just to cure the illness but to make them whole. never underestimate the power you hold in your hands a simple touch can mean more then you know in the eyes of another.