Touching Untouchables with Bare Hands

I was watching the movie, "The Motorcycle Diaries" the other day about two men, Ernesto Guevara (a med student studying about treating leprosy) and Alberto Granado (a biochemist), who take a road trip around South America-- which made me want to jump online and buy a plane ticket to Argentina! During their journey, they stop by a leper colony to volunteer for a few weeks. On their way to the colony, the head doctor is telling them about the people there and the work they will be doing. The doctor explains to them that the nuns who work there have very strict rules about how things are done around the colony. He then hands them gloves to wear that the nuns require everyone to wear. However, when the doctor hands Ernesto the gloves, Ernesto asks: "Leprosy isn't contagious, right? So these gloves are purely symbolic? Then I wont need these" and he and Alberto hand the gloves back to the doctor. The men then eagerly shake hands with the lepers of the colony who are at first confused, but then embrace the men because of their love and lack of prejudices.
This act of unprejudiced love and understanding really struck me. These men were not "Christians" in the sense of it being a mission trip they were on trying to convert people. They went out to meet people and love those who needed to be loved and have the adventure of their lives.
What struck me was the "tradition" and symbolism of how Christians lead their lives. We go around preaching that we need to love people and love those who Jesus loved, especially those who the world overlooks-- the homeless, the prostitutes, the children,etc. There are those people who do love them and reach out to them, but how often do they touch them with gloved hands? We will only go close enough to help them on the surface-- feed them one meal, give them one new set of clothing-- but fail to actually touch them with our bare hands. We fail to help them and love them where they really need to be loved-- in their hearts and their spirits and show them an unconditional love that Jesus called everyone to. We only go so far to help them, because of fears, prejudices, anger, feeling uncomfortable, etc. We wear gloves to touch them and are afraid to really dig deep to show them the love they need. We need to remove the gloves and actually touch people with our bare hands. People will see that and know that you are showing them a love beyond their understanding. And by touching people with your bare hands will give them an opportunity to give something else back to you in return. If you have gloves on your hands, you cannot give everything and you definitely can't get anything in return.
This is something I am still learning to do and understand, but it is definitely something that can be done. Show people a "gloveless" love. That's what Jesus called us all to do.