A Significant Stretch

Seeing how our stretched hands invokes the Holy Spirit

07/21/2021

Mt 12:46-50 While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

One of the simplest but most significant gestures of the sacraments is the extending of the hands. Have you noticed that gesture? But first let me illustrate its importance in daily life. An elderly man lay dying in bed when suddenly he smelled the sweet aroma of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, his favorite.

With a superhuman effort he lifted himself out of bed and crawled downstairs on his hands and knees. Finally arriving, gasping and panting, in the kitchen, he made one last heroic effort and stretched out his hands toward the nearest cookies. Then suddenly smack! His wife hit his hand with a spatula, saying, “Stay out of those cookies; they are for the funeral!” So, we stretch out our hands to chocolate chip cookies.

Our two scriptures today, Ex 15 and Mt 12, describe how Moses and Jesus also stretch out their hands. And their hand-stretching is very significant. We read in Ex 14:21, “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night and so it turned into dry land.” Thus, when Moses stretches out his hand, God controls the forces of nature to save the Israelites.

In Mt 12, someone says that Jesus’ family was waiting outside to speak to him. How did he react? Matthews notes his gesture as he replied: “And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother.’”

Jesus was also exerting diving power over nature when he extended his hands over the people, like Moses. His outstretched hands transformed his human family into his divine family. Pay very close attention whenever anyone stretches out their hands in the scriptures. They are not reaching for cookies; they are revealing the power of God.

With this biblical backdrop, we can see why stretching of the hands is so significant in the seven sacraments. In baptism the pries stretches his hands over the water like Moses stretched his hands over the Red Sea and that water will save a baby like the water saved the Chosen People. In Confirmation the bishop stretches out his hands over  young people and urges them to do God’s will in their lives like Jesus stretched out his hands over those who did God’s will in his day.

In the Eucharist the priest stretches out his hands over the bread and wine on the altar, and the altar server usually forgets to ring the bell. In confession the priest stretches out his hands over the penitent and washes away his or her sins by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Anointing of the Sick, the priest extends his hands over the sick and sometimes they are healed in both body as well as in soul.

In Holy Orders the bishop stretches his hands over a man, a mere mortal, and transforms him into another Christ, an “alter Christus.” In other words, we can see why the stretching of hands is so significant in the sacraments if we first recall how powerful this gesture was in the scriptures. And this gives another layer of meaning to St. Jerome’s classic comment, “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” Now we can say “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of the sacraments.”

But there is one more sacrament that I did not mention yet with a significant stretching out of hands, namely, marriage. When does the priest stretch out his hands over the couple? Well, he does that at the Nuptial Blessing. But, he is not the main minister of Matrimony. Who is? The couple themselves are; the priest is a fancy, liturgical flowerpot.

The groom gives the sacrament of marriage to the bride and the bride gives the sacrament of marriage to the groom. So, when does the minister of the sacrament stretch out his or her hands? Well, first when they reach for each other and kiss each other at the end of the wedding. But more meaningfully, when they reach out for each other and consummate their marriage on their honeymoon. And I would venture to guess that is a lot better than reaching for chocolate chip cookies.

In every sacrament, therefore, as we find sprinkled throughout scripture, is a significant stretching out of hands.” That miraculous moment is called the “epiclesis” in Greek, literally the calling down of the Holy Spirit. The power of the third Person of the Holy Trinity transforms the human into the divine, the earthly into the heavenly, and the temporal into the eternal.

Praised be Jesus Christ!