Sunday Reflections
6th Sunday if year B
Touch the leper, imitate your Christ
1.✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
2. Today’s first reading and gospel speak of leprosy. The first reading (Lev13:1-2,44-46) prescribed how a leper should be treated. He is to be a social outcast, having nothing to do with the community. He must live outside the camp and if ever he has reason to move about, he must cover his upper lips and constantly shout: “I am unclean”. This is to warn the people to stay away from meeting him on the road. Being a leper then was equivalent to dying. In the early Church, requiem masses were celebrated those who were diagnosed with leprosy before banishing them to leper island where the person will stay till death. The mass stands for his burial mass whenever he dies since he will have the privilege of being buried like others. It was to such islands that St. Damian the Leper worked and died as the minister of lepers. The leper is an untouchable.
3. In today’s gospel, the situation of lepers was not different from what was described in the first reading. A leper called out to Jesus. Knowing that leprosy was then regarded as punishment for sin, the man did not lay any claim for healing. His request to Jesus was that of a humble sinner: “If you wish, you can heal me.” Jesus, filled with compassion, reached out to him and TOUCHED him, saying:”of course I wish, be healed.” Jesus touched the untouchable. He then referred him to the priest to confirm his healing and make a thanksgiving offering to God for his restoration.
4. This leper who has suffered exclusion, pains and humiliation stands for so many people in our society today who have been so marginalized that they lay claim to nothing in the society. They accept their bad situation of poverty, persecution and political slavery from those who call themselves political elites. He also stands for those who are humiliated by sin and bad habits, who, like the prodigal son feel that they no longer deserve to be called ‘son’. Among these people we find the victims of addiction to drug, alcohol, pornography and sex. Like the leper such people should remember that Jesus has the wish and the power to reintegrate them to the human society if they should confidently turn to him. It is about saying to Jesus: “I know that alone I can’t but you can, so I surrender to you to deliver me.”
5. Besides the leper, Jesus remains the principal actor in today’s gospel. Jesus knew the social norms which regarded the leper as untouchable because any contact with him renders one ritually unclean. But Jesus lives above ritual laws. He follows the law of love and humanity. He was able to discern the great wound in the humanity of the leper, the wound inflicted by the indifference and disrespect of the healthy people who look down on him as a sinner. Jesus stopped, listened, touched and healed him. He put restored him to his lost dignity. By this marvellous encounter Jesus challenges all his followers to touch the untouchables, to speak and interact with outcasts, the marginalized and humiliated of the society. These people are not difficult to locate. They are in our streets, in our neighborhoods, in our churches and work places. They need a handshake, a tap on the shoulder, a token from us to affirm their humanity and dignity.
6. Jesus touched the untouchable. You too, as a Christian should touch the untouchables. St. Paul boldly called the Corinthians in the second reading to “imitate me as I imitate Christ.”(1Cor11:1). Yes, today’s readings calls you to imitate Christ in breaking down social barriers as much as you can, in building bridges instead of walls. Like Christ make it your duty to restore people to their dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God, fight against all that disfigures the image of God in man.
