SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME “B”

Feb. 15th, 2009

There is a story about a wise old woman who had listened patiently to a group of malcontent people tell her all their problems. “I have some advice for you”, the woman said to them. “Each of you write down ons a piece of paper the trouble that worries you most.” When they all had done that, the woman placed all the papers in a large jar. She stirred them up and then she said: “Now I want each of you to draw out one of the papers and, by all the laws of probability, each of you will have a brand new trouble to worry about.” The malcontents proceeded to do as the wise old woman directed. The result was that all of them, without exception, demanded to have their own trouble back.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus meets a man who would gladly have traded his trouble for almost any other. That man was a leper and he came to Jesus and said : “If you choose you can make me clean.” Obviously, he believed that Jesus had the power to cure him. He had faith in Jesus’ power, and he wanted to know if Jesus would use that power in his case. Jesus was moved with pity for this man, Mark reports, and stretching out His hand, Jesus touched the leper and said: “I do choose. Be made clean” and the leper was immediately cured. Jesus wants to heal us, He wants us to be well, and He also wants us to heal others with His love and power.

Leprosy was, and still is a nasty disease that no one would ever want to have. In Biblical times the word “leprosy” applied to several kinds of mangy, scaly skin diseases. It was not the same disease of leprosy we know today as “Hansen’s Disease” and there was very little doctors could do to cure it. The man who came to Jesus with leprosy was afflicted with a skin disease that was very contagious, and which caused him to be ostracized, both from his family and from the community where he lived. No one could live with a leper except other lepers, so they had to leave their homes and live out in the country in caves, as we saw in the movie, Ben Hur. So this man, a leper, was isolated, not allowed to enter settled areas without giving some clear warning to other people of his condition, to prevent them from coming close to him and risking getting the disease. Once the disease had been cured, however, a leper could resume his life in the community with others, but only after a priest had verified his cure, and performed the purification rite that was required by Jewish law. Now Jesus healed this particular leper out of love and compassion, and for the same reasons He will heal us as well. Jesus also wants us to bring His love and care to others who are in need.

It is clear in today’s Gospel passage that Jesus wanted to reach out to people like this leper, to the social outcasts of His day, to the impoverished, and to the oppressed whom no one else would go near or help. This man who came to Jesus was a leper, and he can be seen to represent all those who desperately needed God’s saving Grace, God’s compassionate and merciful love, both then in Biblical times, and, of course, now as well. As Christians who want to follow Jesus today, we face the great challenge of seeing Him and serving Him in others around us, especially in those we might consider to be outcasts of society, or different from ourselves. Let us not forget too that Jesus Himself was considered an outcast when they arrested Him and He was crucified. He was crucified between two thieves, and all three were taken outside the city walls to be executed.. We read in the Book of Hebrews: “Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by His own Blood. Let us then go to Him outside the camp and bear the abuse He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Heb. 13:12-14) If we are content to remain within the camp, inside the city gates, so to speak, if we simply ignore those who are considered to be outcasts, and refuse to reach out to the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, then, I think, we miss the point of Jesus’ teaching. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells us how we will be judged at the end of our lives. Jesus will be our judge and Matthew reports: “all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.... The king will say to those at his right hand: “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him: ‘Lord when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt. 25-32-40)

What a privilege it is for us to serve the Lord Jesus by serving the lepers in our midst today. Who are those lepers, who are the outcasts who live on the fringes of society?. There are many persons who are obviously living “outside the camp”, as the Gospel puts it, for example, those selling and taking illicit drugs, alcoholics, those in the sex trade who buy and sell people, but there are many others, perhaps including ourselves at times, who suffer with various physical and/or spiritual diseases. We all need Jesus’ help to be mindful of that fact that God

does loves us, and that God can even be closest to us in times of our deepest hurts. We need to always keep in mind that we are beloved of God, and that He will reach out to heal us, often using others as His means, and often in unexpected ways. Today we ask God to touch our lives with His love, and to give us new strength and new hope for the future. God wants to help us, just as Jesus wanted to help the leper in today’s Gospel passage, and God wants us to help others whenever we can, and it just may be when we are suffering from some pain, or periods of doubt, or loneliness that God is preparing us to be instruments of His love and help for others..

Once a lovesick Romeo wrote the following to his beloved: “My dearest Susan, I would swim the mighty ocean for one glance from your lovely eyes. I would walk through a wall of fire for one touch of your delicate hand. I would traverse the widest river, climb the highest mountain for a single word from your warm lips. As ever, your faithful Arnold. - P.S: I’ll come to see you next Saturday, if it doesn’t rain.”

God’s love letter to us has no conditions or qualifications attached, there is no postscript. God’s message is simple and direct. He says to us here and now: “I love you, and I always will love you”. That is the message God wants us to take to heart and to bring to others as we tell them, in words and actions, that they are loved by God, and that God will never abandon them or ignore them. God wants us all to be “inside the gate, inside the camp” all members of His one family united in Jesus. Let that message sink in to our heads and in to our hearts today. God loves us, Jesus loves us and He wants us to love Him in others. He says to us: “Whoever gives a cup of cold water in My Name---- will not want for his reward.”.