6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B); February 14, 2021

Lv 13:1-2,44-46.  Ps 32.  1 Cor 10:31—11:1.  Mk 1:40-45

Deacon Jim McFadden

            The last few Sundays, we have encountered Jesus, the Divine Physician of our bodies and souls.  He was sent into our world plagued by dissension, alienation, dysfunction, and social injustice of every sort—all of which makes us spiritually sick, even affecting our bodies.  The Father sent His Son into our world to heal suffering humanity, marked by sin and its consequences, which we see displayed in our time and place.

            Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mark 1:40-45) presents us the healing of a man afflicted with leprosy, a disease considered to be in the Old Testament a grave impurity (the result of antecedent action of himself or his family), which required separation from his family and community: “Being unclean, the individual shall dwell apart, taking up residence outside the camp” (Lv 13:46).  The fate of a leper is as bad as it can get: the instructions from Leviticus  make the leper the ultimate outsider.  You have a condition that places you beyond the pale.  What’s worse is that the poor miserable creature internalized his society’s obprobrium making him feel unclean even before God.  Can you imagine living a wretched life without any kind of hope?  The mental anguish, the excruciating isolation must have been devastating. 

            Despite all of this, the leper in today’s Gospel sensed that Jesus was different; more to it, he believed that Jesus could liberate him from his external and internal affliction.  He had heard about Jesus from Nazareth who healed all sorts of people—how he gathered people who were excluded, such as public sinners and tax collectors.  So, he boldly comes forward, which in itself broke social taboos and the Mosaic law.  He had faith that Jesus had the power to cure him.  The question was would he?  His hesitancy is whether Jesus would be disposed to do it.  The leper’s self image was that he was beyond human concern and that since he could not worship in the temple or synagogue, God probably didn’t care either.  But, the leper made a leap of faith that God does care about our condition no matter what our state may be.  So, he said, “If you wish, you can make me clean” (Mk 1:40).

            Upon hearing this, Jesus feels pity (cf. v. 41).  It’s very important that we pay attention to this inner resonance Jesus has with the leper.  We cannot understand Jesus Himself—His teachings and deeds—unless we enter into his compassionate and merciful heart.  If we awaken ourselves to the presence of Christ within us, we will live as God operates: total self-giving love, especially towards those most in need. And this is what motivated Jesus to stretch out his hand to that man afflicted with leprosy, to touch him and say to him, “I will; be clean” (v. 40). 

            Brothers and sisters, this is a most shocking fact: Jesus touched the leper, which was absolutely prohibited by Mosaic law.  Touching a leper meant being infected inside, in the spirit because one has gone against God’s law.  But, by doing so, Jesus is revealing that God’s desire is to purify us from illness that disfigures us and ruins our relationships. In that simple but radical touch between Jesus’ hand and the leper, every barrier between God and human impurity, disfigurement, alienation, between the sacred and the profane, was pulled down. 

            In this simple gesture, the influence does not go from the leper to Jesus to transfer the disease, but rather the healing divine energy of God flows from Jesus to the leper, which makes him clean!  In this healing, apart from our Lord’s compassion and mercy, we see the audacity of God.  He is concerned ultimately neither about the contagion nor about the rules, but is moved only by the will to free the man from the curse that oppresses him.

            People of God, we are going through a terrible travail in which so much separates us, in which we place so many of our brothers and sisters “outside the camp.”  As we stand before this Gospel, we have the opportunity to have our Faith renewed because through Jesus, nothing separates us from God and others.  Jesus’ action does not deny the power of sin or evil, but it does demonstrate that God’s love for us is stronger than any “contagion”.  Even the most contagious virulent form of dehumanization, God’s love can transform us into what we really are: a beloved child of God, who is made in God’s image, which is our essential identity.  When Jesus touched the leper, he was identifying with the man’s oppressive condition.  In so doing, he was taking on his and our infirmities.  By touching the man, Jesus symbolically made himself a “leper” so that we may be made clean.

            Church, this is the kind of healing that awaits us as we contend with so much ugliness, division, and dysfunction.  The question is: do you believe that

Jesus can heal your “leprosy”?  Do you believe that Jesus can transform your condition and convert you to the love of God?  Do you believe that Jesus wants to do that for you?  If you do, let Jesus touch you!  Let him bring profound healing to your life so that you may fully share in His Resurrected Life. Amen.