Back in the late 70s and early 80s, there was a psychology professor named Leo Buscaglia. His nickname was Dr. Love and for very good reason. After each lecture, he would give a hug to everybody in his audience who wanted one. And everybody wanted one. He taught a class at the university simply called “love,” and there was a waiting list for it a mile long.

I heard him speak once on what he called, “skin hunger.” I had never heard the term before. He went on to say that all of us have this incredible hunger for touch. We are built this way. As a matter of fact, we cannot live without touch. He gave the example of fifth grade boys who are forever shoving, pushing, and playfully wrestling with each other. He said it had nothing to do with their orientation but everything to do with the need to have physical contact with another.

When they were two years old, Mama provided the contact. But, as we know, the male of the species somewhere along the line has to separate from Mama to establish his own identity. But that doesn’t take away the need for touch. So we see MMA fighters hug each other after beating each other up and athletes constantly giving high fives or trading fist bumps.

None of this should surprise us. Some of us may remember the famous story of the orphanage in post-World War II Germany where the babies on the first floor were dying, and the babies on the second floor were thriving and nobody understood why.

One night, while trying to figure out this conundrum, one of the doctors observed the cleaning lady on the first floor. She cleaned immaculately. There was not a germ to be found anywhere. Yet these babies were dying. He then went up to the second floor and observed the cleaning lady up there. She wasn’t quite so clean and the reason for this was that, at every bassinet she came to, she would stop, pick up the baby, hug it, kiss it and then put it back to bed. The babies on the first floor were dying for lack of physical contact, for lack of love. If you’re going to live, you have to be touched. We all do.

And yet now, for many of us, especially those of us who live alone, we are told we can’t. I don’t believe the need for physical human touch ever goes away, no matter what our age. This is why it seems almost inhuman for those dying of this dreadful disease not to be able to have their loved ones around to touch them. Somehow this should be considered an, “essential service.“ And for some reason, FaceTime just doesn’t cut it. The reason is that we are incarnated beings. We are not pure spirits like the angels. For us, no body...no spirit. They are inseparable. God made us that way.

It seems that, when God wanted to make an external manifestation of Himself, He created matter, the universe. No God...No universe. So the stars and the planets and the seas and the earth and the plants and the animals — and let’s not forget the human animals — carry in them divine DNA. Saint Francis told us that the physical world was the footprint of God.

This leads to an interesting question: if this is the creation, what must the Creator be like? Answer: a divine relationship of love; we call this the Holy Trinity. And in the fullness of time, when this God wanted to manifest His love for His creation, He sent the Divine Logos to physically become His Son, Jesus who is the Christ. And we, today, are the BODY of Christ!

This man, Jesus, who is the Christ, went around proclaiming the Kingdom of God. In this Kingdom, all are called to be “one” as He and His Father are one. To manifest this wonderful unity, He healed. How did He heal? He touched! He touched the leper; was touched by the hemorrhaging woman; He touched the little dead girl; He touched the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind. And by this wonderful divine power, everything He touched, He healed.

I have often told mothers that they, too, have the power to heal, just like Jesus did. When their little one comes with a bruised arm crying, what does Mama do? She kisses it (bathing the wound with the bacteria of love) and the little one stops crying and is healed. This is not some psychological trick. This is real, physical healing, and we are called to be healers by the power of touch for we too are the Body of Christ, in space and time.

What He did, we too are called to do.

The moment it is safe to do so — and, please God, maybe soon — we need to do no less. There are many who are telling us that, when this is over, we will no longer be shaking hands or hugging each other. I don’t buy that for a minute. It’s inhuman. I believe that the divine purpose of this hiatus of no physical contact or touch is to make us hungry… Skin hungry. And to never again take physical contact for granted.

I have a good doctor friend (who, by the way, is a skin doctor) recently tell me that, up until now in his practice, he would shake the hand of everyone who came into his office, even the little children. And the moment this is over, he is going back to his practice.

When I ask Catholics what they miss most about not being able to go to church right now, they tell me the physical presence of the people and the reception of the Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Spiritual Communion may be a wonderful theological concept, and we truly are coming into contact with the Divine, but somehow it’s not the same. Livestreaming may be a wonderful technology, but it is not a replacement for the Real Thing. That’s simple incarnation theology.

The author John Shea tells the story of a little boy who goes to bed but first wants a glass of water and then a story and then for mommy to stay for a while. He doesn’t want to be alone. Mommy tells him not to worry. God is with him and will watch over him all night. He tells her, I know that but I want someone with some skin.

Don’t we all!