• Fr Jo Paul Kiriyanthan

A picture of a tender encounter between Pope Francis and Vinicio Riva, an Italian has become popular in 2013. Pope hugged Vinicio who was suffering from neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder with growths and itchy sores from head to toe. Later Vinicio explained his experience to the media in the following words “When he came close to me, I thought he would give me his hand. Instead, he came straight to me and embraced me tightly. We didn’t speak. We said nothing but he looked at me as if he was digging deep inside, a beautiful look that I would never have expected. I am not contagious, but he didn’t know that. He didn’t have any fear of my illness. I felt I was returning home ten years younger, as if a load had been lifted.” To understand the impact of this experience, one need to be aware of the discrimination he faced right from his childhood within the society. He felt that people were less detached from him after this encounter with the pope.

The experience of embrace is always medicinal, not only special ones like that explained the above. Twenty seconds of hug produces a big dose of oxytocin and which strengthens relationships, moods and behaviours. Virginia Satir, an American psychotherapist says that we need four hugs a day for survival, eight hugs a day for maintenance and twelve hugs a day for growth.

At times people do not recognize the impact of small gestures of love within the relationships and interactions. Now people are overwhelmed with stress, and the life-situations are demanding. Therefore, simple and concrete expressions of love like hugs can balance the emotions of human being. They are the treasures of love which usually get ignored by and large. In the parable of the prodigal son we read, “and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him”. Life could be better with our simple expressions of love.