Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁵ This absence, so to say, of His body, and presence of His power among all nations, He signified also in the instance of that woman who had touched the edge of His garment, when He asks, saying, “Who touched Me?” He asks, as though He were absent; as though present, He heals. “The multitude,” say the disciples, “press You, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?” For as if He were so walking as not to be touched by anybody at all, He said, “Who touched Me?” And they answer, “The multitude press You.”

And the Lord would seem to say, I am asking for one who touched, not for one who pressed Me. In this case also is His Body now, that is, His Church. The faith of the few “touches” it, the throng of the many “press” it. For you have heard, as being her children, that Christ's Body is the Church, and if you will, you yourselves are so. This the Apostle says in many places, “For His body's sake, which is the Church;” and again, “But you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” If then we are His body, what His body then suffered in the crowd, that does His Church suffer now.

It is pressed by many, touched by few. The flesh presses it, faith touches it. Lift up therefore your eyes, I beseech you, you who have wherewithal to see. For you have before you something to see. Lift up the eyes of faith, touch but the extreme border of His garment, it will be sufficient for saving health.