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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Gregory of Nyssa
And because the Deity is united with each portion of man, i. e. both soul and body, in each are evident the signs of a heavenly nature. For the body declared the Deity hidden in it, when by touching it afforded a remedy, but the soul, by the mighty power of its will, marked the Divine strength. For as the sense of touch is the property of the body, so the motion of the will of the soul. The soul wills, the body touches.
Theophylact of Ohrid
For His sacred flesh has a healing, and life-giving power, as being indeed the flesh of the Word of God.
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
He heals in the same manner in which He had been entreated to heal, as it follows, And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, &c. The law forbids to touch the leprous man, but He who is the Lord of the law submits not to the law, but makes the law; He did not touch because without touching He was unable to make him clean, but to show that he was neither subject to the law, nor feared the contagion as man; for He could not be contaminated Who delivered others from the pollution. …
Bede
And extending his hand, he touched him saying: I am willing; be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. There is nothing between the work of God and the command, because in the command is the work. For he said, and they were made. You see therefore that it cannot be doubted because the will of God is power. If therefore his will is power, those who assert one will, certainly assert one power. Therefore, as having the power to heal, and the authority to command, he did not avoid the testimony of working. …
Bonaventure
Third, the operation of the physician is added, when it says: Extending his hand, he touched him saying etc., which indeed was admirable both by reason of clemency, and by reason of power, and by reason of efficacy. On account of clemency he says: He touched him: for although he could have healed by word alone, he preferred to touch, in order to show his benevolence: whence Proverbs, last chapter: "She opened her hand to the needy." Whence this man could no longer murmur against Christ, as Naaman did against Elisha: Fourth Kings, …
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