The WORD in other words (2014) by Fr Joseph Miras SVD – Toronto, Canada
Saturday 7th Week in Ordinary Time
The Filipino custom of kissing the hands of persons older than we are is considered particularly a Filipino trait. It extends to asking the elderly and even priests to bless the children (babies) and even adults.
While this form of greeting might be very Filipino, greeting in general finds a lot of expression in other cultures as well. For example, the Japanese bow at each other. Other Asians with Buddhist influence like the Laotians or Cambodians, Thais, and Vietnamese, greet people by slightly making a bow, and with folded hands, in a prayer-like mode.
In Europe or North America, “best-best” or kissing each other’s cheek is the most common practice. In Arab countries (or even in Italy) even men kiss each other’s cheek. A handshake is also another form of greeting.
In short, a greeting, though expressed in many cultural ways, still conveys the message of courtesy, respect, and friendship or kinship.
The point, however, in all these, is the fact that the sense of touch is considered as one of the most outstanding of all the senses. We, humans, may not be the most tactile of all creatures, but our sense of touch can be the most wonderful and can also be the most abhorrent.
The sense of touch can convey the most sublime feelings. It can express the wily schemes that play in the darkness of our hearts. It does wonders as much as it destroys.
The sense of touch is deeply ingrained in many of our Christian practices. The laying of hands is a very important component of the rite of the sacrament of Confirmation and Holy Orders. The act calls on the Spirit of God to empower the person with the Spirit’s many gifts, in other words, God himself is called upon to descend and even possess the person.
In the Eucharist, at the offertory, when the priest begins to pray the Eucharistic Prayer, he extends his hands over the gifts to call on God to bless the offerings. Furthermore, in the Mass, when we are asked to extend the peace of God symbolically to each one, we extend our hands or give the kiss of peace. When we begin our prayer and end our prayers we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross.
These several instances in our sacramental celebrations clearly point out the significance of the sense of touch from a faith perspective. Most of all, we are asked to remember that God’s touch is a blessing, thus we ought to consider and extend God’s touch for we are his hands.
