6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) - Jesus a friend of outcasts, a friend who is full of compassion and mercy.
What makes someone undesirable? Their physical
appearance? Their breath? Their body odor? Or even maybe their actions? Does
God see people as undesirable?
In the Gospel today, we see a leper approaches Jesus.
Now, leprosy was greatly feared especially in times of
old, for it is a horrible skin disease that actually eats away at the parts of
the body it has infected. People who are afflicted with leprosy watch their
fingers and toes slowly dissolve. They smell terribly. Eventually, they die
from the disease. To make matters worse, leprosy is easily spread to other
people, so no one wants to be near a leper. From the 1st reading we
hear of the law that required all leprous people to cry out, "Unclean!
Unclean!" as they walked down the road or whenever they were in a
public place. This was to ensure that no one would come too close to them and
possibly risk infection as well as become religiously unclean. Because of the strict isolation laws applying
to leprosy, the leper soon loses all his friends. And as the reading shows, the
leper lives apart, outside the camp; the leper becomes an outcast.
The Leper that approached Jesus as we have heard in the
Gospel shares the same situation of all the lepers. The leper was socially
outcast, having lost his family, his friends and any interaction with others in
society who were non-lepers. He had lost his ability to join in worship with
others and faced the physical effects of his skin disease. He is without
hope. He is desperate. And, in his desperation he calls out to Jesus.
So what does Jesus do? How does Jesus react?
Jesus gets close to the leper, gives him His undivided attention and then reaches out and touches him. In this touch Jesus risks becoming physically infected while at the same time fully making Himself religiously unclean. Jesus’ touch would have been considered offensive to the religious people. He not only broke the rules, but He also put Himself at risk. What was He thinking to take a risk like that? He put Himself in harms’ way to do something that wasn’t even necessary for the leper’s physical healing. Jesus could only say the word and the leper could be healed. But no! Jesus feeling sorry for the leper stretched out his hand and touched him. So why touch the leper?
So what does Jesus do? How does Jesus react?
Jesus gets close to the leper, gives him His undivided attention and then reaches out and touches him. In this touch Jesus risks becoming physically infected while at the same time fully making Himself religiously unclean. Jesus’ touch would have been considered offensive to the religious people. He not only broke the rules, but He also put Himself at risk. What was He thinking to take a risk like that? He put Himself in harms’ way to do something that wasn’t even necessary for the leper’s physical healing. Jesus could only say the word and the leper could be healed. But no! Jesus feeling sorry for the leper stretched out his hand and touched him. So why touch the leper?
Let us take a moment now to put ourselves in the situation of the leper. I being the leper have been deprived of physical touched ever since being diagnosed with the disease and now meeting Jesus, He reached out to me in my forgotten state and not only acknowledged my presence, but actually got close enough to touch me. (The song ‘He touched me’ seems very appropriate here – “He touched me, Oh He touched me, And oh the joy that floods my soul! Something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole”).
Jesus brings a deeper level of healing to this man than just his physical. Please do note that in the Gospel, the man asks not to be made “well”, but rather to be made “clean.” He asks Jesus for something that not only restores him physically, but that also makes him able to enter society again. No longer an outcast. No longer alone. No longer considered cursed and forgotten. Imagine the joy of being able to walk down the road and yell “Clean” with great joy, and to no longer have to self-incriminate himself as he made sure passersby knew to keep their distance. Jesus lifts him out of the ranks of the untouchable outcast to the place of valued and remembered. For the leper Jesus becomes known not only as Lord and Master in that moment, but also as friend. Jesus a friend of outcasts, a friend who is full of compassion and mercy.
The ministry of Jesus is one of mercy,
forgiveness and compassion. His friendship is all embracing. And we as His
disciples are called to imitate Him. In our present times, in our world today, we
have many ‘outcasts’ – the social rejects of society. Who do you
think are the social outcasts of society now? Hmmmm the mentally and
physically differently able persons? Those suffering with deadly viruses and diseases? How about Children of
inter-racial marriages? People
living in poverty? Because of war and terror attacks some religious groups or
even the minority religious people have become outcasts by the majority. How
about those who do not follow the norms of society, whether it be intentionally
done or not, can they be considered social outcasts? Hmmmm how about those ‘lepers’
or ‘outcasts’ of our times who have been rejected as failures by society and by
the church. They include those who feel rejected by God because of a moral
failure. Those divorced and remarried?
Those single mothers? Those without any children? The LGBT groups? How many
people have we ourselves branded them as rejects and treated them as outcasts?
To help us understand and accept each other, we must keep in mind that God has put in us a dignity that no one can take away, whether ‘saint or sinner’ that is the dignity that makes us all children of God. We need to recognize that all of us, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation, have been created by God and endowed with this ‘special character’ that makes us children of God. No one can take away this special character that has been bestowed by God. But then, we may ask; How about those living in sinful and immoral lives, those going against the teachings of the church? Remember I mentioned earlier that the ministry of Jesus is one of mercy, forgiveness and compassion, Jesus teaches us to "love the sinner but hate the sin"- quoting the famous saying of St. Augustine. Let God only be the judge and we be his instruments of love, forgiveness and mercy. Let us continue the ‘barrier-breaking’ ministry that Jesus has done and still doing.
To help us understand and accept each other, we must keep in mind that God has put in us a dignity that no one can take away, whether ‘saint or sinner’ that is the dignity that makes us all children of God. We need to recognize that all of us, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation, have been created by God and endowed with this ‘special character’ that makes us children of God. No one can take away this special character that has been bestowed by God. But then, we may ask; How about those living in sinful and immoral lives, those going against the teachings of the church? Remember I mentioned earlier that the ministry of Jesus is one of mercy, forgiveness and compassion, Jesus teaches us to "love the sinner but hate the sin"- quoting the famous saying of St. Augustine. Let God only be the judge and we be his instruments of love, forgiveness and mercy. Let us continue the ‘barrier-breaking’ ministry that Jesus has done and still doing.
The second reading, St. Paul writing to the Corinthians reminds us to never to
do anything offensive to anyone but to be helpful to everyone at all times, so
that all may be saved.
Pope Francis in his message for Lent 2015, has warned us about the global trend of indifference and we as Christians need to confront this problem of selfish attitude of indifference which has become a real temptation for us. He reminds us that “God is not indifferent to our world, for he so loves it that He gave His Son for our salvation”. As a church, Pope Francis has asked us “to bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced”. I quote “Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others”. The Pope also writes that “every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.” Pope Francis tells us that “we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far… . Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family.”
Allow me to conclude, quoting from the conclusion of Pope Francis 2015 Lenten message with the theme “Make your hearts firm”. The Pope says; “A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.”
Pope Francis in his message for Lent 2015, has warned us about the global trend of indifference and we as Christians need to confront this problem of selfish attitude of indifference which has become a real temptation for us. He reminds us that “God is not indifferent to our world, for he so loves it that He gave His Son for our salvation”. As a church, Pope Francis has asked us “to bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced”. I quote “Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others”. The Pope also writes that “every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.” Pope Francis tells us that “we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far… . Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family.”
Allow me to conclude, quoting from the conclusion of Pope Francis 2015 Lenten message with the theme “Make your hearts firm”. The Pope says; “A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.”
