RBWords

 FEBRUARY 10  ST. SCHOLASTICA, osb

     Touching the tassel of Jesus' cloak seems to have been an important way for people to access Jesus.  In Mark 5, which we saw not long ago, a woman with incurable hermorrhages felt that way.  In the midst of a crowd, Jesus felt her faith touch him.  The tassel was not a magic amulet, and it was the woman's faith that made the difference, not the touch of the tassel, but still that touch was important to the woman and the sick in the marketplace.  I rather see that tassel as a symbol to us that even the smallest devotional item has great power if the faith of the possesser is powerful.  But the power is in the relationship and not in the item.  If we attribute  power to the item, we are giving it what belongs to God, and that is idolatry.  The religious item is an instrument of prayer and faith.

     A battle over this was fiercely fought in the early church when some rejected all images and religious items - iconoclasts.  Eventually religious imagery and items won the day, but the notion remains and was part of the debate in the Reformation in the 16th century.

     As long as we maintain a proper understanding, our devotion to religious objects from rosaries to crucifixes to holy cards to stained glass windows, etc. will be sound.  This is not like the consecrated host at the Eucharist.  There the host is not an object but a person and it is our relationship to that person which makes all the difference.  We may revere the altar and candlesticks and all the other "tassels" of Catholic religious expression that speak to us of God's power, but the power remains God's and not the item's.  Touch is an important form of sensory expression.  But it is what is expressed that is important.  The sick in the marketplace and the woman with hemorrhages learned that at first hand.  AMEN