THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – February 12, 2012
The Book of Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 10:31-11:1
The Gospel according to Mark 1:40-45
Many will wince during the proclamation of this Sunday’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus. It is the Lord who speaks to Moses and Aaron and tells them that a person with leprosy must be brought to the priest and there be declared unclean. From then on s/he is not welcome in the camp and must cry out: Unclean, unclean! Then anyone who might otherwise be unaware, hearing the warning can avoid contact with the poor wretch. Touching a leper results in uncleanness and makes the person unfit to enter into Temple worship until the priest declares him to be clean again. Harsh as all of this sounds, it must be remembered that leprosy was thought to be highly contagious. Simply touching a leprous person could spread the disease. For the safety of the members, lepers lived in exile, outside the camp, like refuse. This law of uncleanness is painful to hear. There will be consolation in the Gospel. Wait and see.
We might be tempted to heave a huge sigh of relief realizing that lepers are no longer treated in this fashion. Leprosy is not that contagious, and these are far more civilized times, aren’t they? Perhaps. Unless we take off our blinders. Lepers may not be shunned for fear of contagion, but we are far from a classless society in which all people are treated equally, walking in the same degrees of freedom and acceptance. Racism is far from extinct. Recently I read a story about two white men who purposefully drove over and killed another man. They thought he was black and should not have been in their neighborhood. You have heard people voice concern for your president, fearing an assassination attempt because of his race. Sexism may be on the wane, but it is far from extinct. It is more than a decade ago, but who can forget the horrible story of the young man who, because he was gay, was beaten to death and left hanging on a fence post in Wyoming? Young people are committing suicide because of bullying. How many wars are waged in the name of religion!
Here is a question we must ask ourselves in this context. Whom would we exclude? Whom would we feel justified in shunning? Answer with naked honesty.
It happened 40 years ago, but the moment is indelibly etched in my memory. I was visiting a boy in hospital who had been badly burned in a flaming car accident that had killed his father and uncle and left his younger brother badly burned as well. The scarring was horribly disfiguring. We sat in a dimly lit room, the windows to the hall covered lest someone passing by might peer inside. The door behind me opened and a little girl wandered in. She gasped as she caught sight of him, shrieked and fled the room. I saw tears well in his eyes. Does God think I am ugly, too, he asked?
I remember carrying in my arms a man dying with AIDS. His mother had asked me to visit him. She was a convert to our faith and was concerned that her son was not baptized. So she and her son’s partner and I had gathered around his bed and talked about God’s love and that Jesus died for us all as a sign of that love. There were some long and awkward pauses as the patient little by little let go of his fears of being condemned and rejected by the Church and declared unfit for Baptism. With the sound of great trepidation in his voice he asked if Baptism could be for him. We filled the bathtub. I carried him to the tub and lowered him into the waters. And as I said the words, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he raised his arms like one praying. Then he jerked his arm in the motion made by one sinking a birdie putt. Yes, he said, in a whisper instead of a shout. We all wept at his joy. The next day he died.
Hear the confidence of the leper as he kneels before Jesus. Either he has heard Jesus teach or others have told me about Jesus and what he was rumored to be accomplishing among the poor and the desperate. What makes him conclude that what Jesus has done for others could be done for him? Something about Jesus made the leper comfortable in approaching him. If you wish you can make me clean. Notice that Jesus touches the leper, thereby incurring ritual uncleanness himself. Then hear him speak in his own name: I do will it. Be made clean. The man is immediately cured. There is a curious sentence whose implication you might miss. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Could it be that we have witnessed another evil spirit being cast out? Otherwise, how explain the continuing conversation with the cured man as he is directed to go to the priest and have himself declared clean? And Jesus asks the man to tell no one about what has happened. Again, the real significance of the moment is not yet apparent.
Jesus is the compassionate one, the one who willingly enters into other’s sufferings and makes them his own. Love compels him, God’s love that Jesus brings to the world.
As you hear this Gospel proclaimed, the more burdened you are the more will the message console you, renew your hope and challenge you. If you can imagine yourself kneeling in the leper’s place and looking into Jesus’ face, would you be able to speak with that same confidence? You could unless you are convinced that your sin, whatever it is, is the most important thing. Certainly not to trivialize or to ignore the reality of sin, the fact is the sin is not nearly as important as your sorrow and the forgiveness that God wishes to bestow upon you. That is the significance of the healing of the leper. Banishing the uncleanness will result in the man’s restoration to the community. Your forgiveness is your restoration. But what is the resulting challenge?
One of the wonderful proclamations of the Second Vatican Council is that all the Church’s Sacraments are public celebrations – even the Sacrament of Penance. In every sacrament it is the whole Church acting as the Body of Christ. And just as there is no such thing as a private sin, that is, a sin that affects only the sinner, so too, there is no such thing as a private Sacrament of Reconciliation. The whole Church acts. The whole Church proclaims God’s forgiveness. The sinner is reconciled to the whole Church. And the whole Church rejoices.
That ought to be the proclamation clearly heard from every parish – that all are welcome here. No one is shunned. Each person that enters ought to sense immediately that this is a loving community of forgiven sinners that welcomes all who come among them to join them in Eucharist. There are no strangers or aliens here. All are welcome. All are part of the one family of God, recipients of the universal and unconditional love for which we give thanks in the celebration of Eucharist. Why else is there One Bread that we break, One cup that we share? See how powerful the symbols are?
There is no greater joy than that experienced in the healing of a broken relationship. There is no great joy than that of reconciliation. One who is forgiven and reconciled will much more readily accept the possibility that God loves him than will the one who is shunned. As a representative of your parish community, one who knows what it means to be forgiven, one who has stood at the table in the midst of the assembly gathered there, remember that you are sent from that Eucharist to live it in the world. Be an ambassador of healing. Be a sign of God’s acceptance and love where ever you go and to whomever you meet. Bring peace.
Sincerely,
Didymus
