Holding The Hand

Tenuit, inquit, manum, et dimisit eam febris. Quid putas? Nunquid verbo non potuit eam curare, quia tenuit manum ejus? Vel cur leprosum tangit, et curat verbo; hujus vero tenet manum, e continuo discedit febris? Illum ergo tangit, quod lex vetuerat, ut se supra legem ostenderet, de quo satis jam diximus. Hujus vero tenuit manum, quam mulier contra mandatum extenderat ad arborem, de qua noxium arboris gustum sumeret. Propterea ergo ratio fuit ejus tenere manum, ut vitam resumeret; quia Adam de manu mulieris acceperat mortem. Sic omnia Salvatoris concinunt opera. Justum quippe erat ut quod manus praesumentis admiserat, manus repararet auctoris, et indulgentiam reciperet quae cunctis intulerat mortem. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber V, Caput VIII Source: Migne PL 120.354b

'He held her hand and the fever left her.' 1 What do you think? Is He not able to cure with a word because He took her hand? Or when He touched the leper, and then cured with a word, 2 yet here He must hold the hand of this woman for the fever to leave her immediately? He touched the leper to set aside the law and show Himself superior to it, concerning which we have said enough already. But He held the hand of this woman because the woman had stretched out her hand to the tree against the command, from which she took up the bitter taste of death. 3 Therefore this is the reason He held her hand, so that life would be restored, because Adam received death from the hand of the woman. So all the works of the Saviour harmonise. Certainly it was right that because the presumptuous hand had worked loss, the hand of the Creator should restore, and that she should receive forgiveness who brought death on everyone. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 5, Chapter 8 1 Mt 8.15 2 Mt 8.3, 8.7-13 3 Gen 3.1-6