Sunday, February 16, 2003
6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Readings

Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46: Lepers are impure

Psalm 31

1 Corinthians 10: 31- 11: 1 Follow my example as I follow Christ’s example

Mark 1: 40- 45: If you want, you can heal me

 

The book of Leviticus, the fourth book of the Pentateuch, those first five books of the Bible, is a complex collection of liturgical and ritual norms from Jewish priestly traditions. The book contains rules of conduct for sacrifices and offerings, as well as for Jewish prayer, especially the prayer for the Jerusalem temple. The book also provides a religious calendar of the chief feasts of the year, along with some precise ritual prescriptions. These are norms which were intended to safeguard the purity of the Jews, who, at least according to Jewish convictions, were chosen by God to be a people apart from others who were not holy. The motivation for the separation was the desire to offer to God pure religious service, one that, in their minds, would be pleasing to him.

 

Today's reading from Leviticus describes leprosy as one of those diseases that threatens the holiness, the wholesomeness, of the people. The enormous fear that this disease inspired in ancient times is detectable in the ritual norms written about leprosy. Lepers, for instance, were prohibited from living with the rest of the community. The lepers were excommunicated—cut off from social interactions as well as from the celebration of their faith. The confusion of other skin diseases with leprosy increased the number victims and made the situation worse. The Jews were not the only people to treat lepers in this manner. Even today we can find remnants of the social stigma attached to disease. We might remember how tuberculosis patients were treated in the 19th century, our reflect on attitudes shown towards certain kinds of cancers, and of course, and especially, the way we treat people with AIDS. Evidently the Church chose this reading to prepare us for dramatic gesture of Jesus toward those afflicted with leprosy.

 

In the first letter to the Corinthians St. Paul encourages us to make our actions, even the simplest ones, like eating or drinking, aspire to the greater glory of God. He wishes that we would make our entire daily life a prayer of gratitude toward the one who has loved us so much in Christ Jesus. Living in such a way would be an inspiration to all, be they believers or nonbelievers. Indeed the gift of good example is an important way in which we Christians mutually encourage each other in our discipleship.

 

Paul goes so far is to offer himself as an example of a good example, pointing out that he doesn't worry about his own well-being but rather the state of those to whom God sent him to preach, especially pagans, although the Jews as well. And the only reason that Paul can offers himself as an example to follow is because he himself chose to follow Jesus.

 

Mark’s gospel is a story about the healing of a leper. As we saw in the first reading, this terrible disease meant the absolute exile the patient from the human community, and as well, from the divine community, prohibited as he was from participating in religious cult. The leper in this reading has not yet given into despair. He encounters a Jesus filled with confidence in the power of own ability to save, a man filled with mercy and touched with a particular solicitude for the sick. This is why the lepers say “if you want you can heal me”, doubtlessly knowing that Jesus had done so with other sick people who came to him. The leper is absolutely right-- Jesus does want to heal, for Jesus is merciful and compassionate and especially so with those who suffer. Jesus responds right away, “I do want to heal you; be clean.” But not only this: after healing the leper Jesus reintroduces him back into the social and cultural life of his people. Jesus not only gives the leper back his health-- he restores him his dignity.

 

There is a special detail in this story that we need to be careful not to overlook. The gospel tells us the Jesus touched the leper. This gesture is a radical one-- no Jew would have dared to do such a thing. To touch a leper would be to make oneself a leper. Touching a leper would at least mean that one would be considered ritually impure, and the purification rites required a certain time in quarantine as well as other complex rituals. This is why the gospel says the Jesus could not go to the towns. He had to stay outside of town. He had touched a leper and such was his fame that all sorts of sick people came to see him. He was doomed to ritual impurity.

 

These days we don't segregate the sick the way they did in the times of Jesus. We do however, segregate other kinds of people-- condemning them to living alone, denying them our company, our friendship and our help. We do indeed treat the poorest is if they were lepers. Indeed only the most radical Christians are capable of imitating Jesus in working to free the poor from their misery, in sharing with them their very own lives, and of trying to reincorporate them into the community. Once we are made aware of these practices of segregation we then become responsible to imitate the Lord in his generosity, in his courage, in taking a firm decision to restore their God-given dignity to all human beings-- a claim that we, their brothers and sisters have stripped from them.

 

For Personal Consideration

 

The Gospel often notes that Jesus felt pity. The original text uses expressions that refer to a physical reaction that Jesus had when he was confronted with suffering—his “intestines were stricken”. Do I ever have this sort of empathy, this way of feeling that is much more than an intellectual exercise but rather an affective, physical experience?

 

For the Group’s Consideration

 

The ancient Jewish people ostracized lepers. The lepers were forced to lives on the outskirts of towns because this sickness was considered a sign that God himself had rejected these people. Today we think that we have a more advanced way of looking at things. Is this opinion necessarily true? Can we think of groups of people that society continues to reject, who society distrusts and marginates? What would Jesus do with these groups of people if he were here today?

 

We should do all things for the greater glory of God--not only those heroic actions, but the simplest things that make up our daily life as well. What is the theological foundation for this belief? Vatican II, in its encyclical Lumen Gentium, chapters 10 and 11 spoke of a “common priesthood” and Paul’s text from Romans 12, 1-2 speaks of the same reality. Is this a truth that is recognized and celebrated?

 

Placing the law above people and the objectification of human beings are two of the most painful ways that we fail to love our neighbor. All the same, they happen all too frequently. Can we share some examples of this injustice?

 

For the Prayer of the Faithful

 

That the Church make a serious effort to respond to the problems of our times, we pray to the Lord.

 

That the leaders of the nations of the world work for the common good without resorting to the imposition of law, enjoying favoritism, or oppressing minorities, we pray to the Lord.

 

That all judges throughout the world exercise true justice, without caving into lies or bribery, we pray to the Lord.

 

That all workers continue to struggle to obtain just working conditions and that they be recognized as people working to build a new world, we pray to the Lord.

 

That we all know how to place law at the service of people and never trap people with the law we pray to the Lord.

 

Let Us Pray

 

Loving and merciful God to whom he gives great joy to the present with those who worked with all their hearts all their been the other strains to build up your rules of love and life in abundance helpless to live in such away that we fulfill always and everywhere your desired that we live ancestors and others. You live and give life, forever and ever, Amen.