A Touchable Jesus

According to the Christian belief, God entered the world himself in the

tangible form of Jesus allowing this being to be approached in a multitude of ways,

as: a broken body on a cross, a baby nursing from his mother’s breast, a young man

embracing a friend. In, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch, Canstance

Classen discusses two very important excerpts from the gospel of St. John that

specifically connect the sense of touch to Jesus.

In one passage, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene not to cling to him and in the

other he invites Saint Thomas to touch him as proof of his resurrection. It was

eventually concluded that Mary should not touch Jesus because she wanted to

embrace him as a lover and a man. In contrast, Thomas could embrace him because,

being high-minded and masculine in nature, he properly understood the proper

reverence owed to Jesus. I believe that the action of Jesus had responding differently

to the touch of a man versus a woman, has resulted in significant consequences in

terms of the way that women have been viewed and treated over the past thousands of

years. Of course, this is only a tiny piece of the massive effort to distinguish between

the roles of males and females but given the influence and massive following of

Christianity, I am sure it had some effect.

These physical representations of Jesus allowed our sense of touch to become

one of the most significant senses used in Christian ritual. The role of touch in

religion became much more of an embodied practice and was often used as the

finishing seal on several important sacraments. It is specifically called “laying on of

hands” for things such as: receiving communion, conferred priesthood, and rites of

healing.

People became so enamored with the value of touch that in the latter part of

the Middle Ages, a shift in cultural consciousness occurred and Jesus’s body became

a strong focal point within religious practice, particularly the acknowledgement of his

sacrifice along with the physical pains that he endured. People started meditating on

his suffering, trying to experience the same pain that he did, joining in the suffering.

During that time, the even more pious took this concept and brought it to extreme

measures of ritual practice. For example, kneeling hundreds of times in a row as well

as repeatedly whipping oneself to experience his suffering. The manifest resulted in a

type of pain that was supposed to prevent the self-indulging of the other senses.

Through this, their devotion to god is apparent with their sacrifice resulting in the

salvation of all other Christians.

Classes write that beginning in the 12th century, the most highly valued form

of religious touch was that which brings one directly into physical contact with

holiness. This belief was much more wide spread to the general population, touching

anyone mildly holy ranging from a public figure to someone they admire as important

to touch. The church only condoned this for relics of the “official Hollies”.  This lead

to the popularization of holy relics whether it be body parts of dead saints or objects

and clothing that they had worn. These relics were believed to have powers such as:

curing illness and disease, forcing dark spirits to leave or bringing good fortune.

Increased faith and personal holiness even protects one from harm whilst in contact

with it. Our sense of touch was and is an extremely important part of Christianity and

ritual.