My Sisters and Brothers:
In today’s Scripture readings from the Old Testament book of Leviticus (see chapter 13:1-2, 44-46), and from the Gospel of Mark (see chapter 1:40-45), we hear something about the terrible disease of leprosy. Throughout all of history, most people with leprosy have been nearly completely rejected by their families and their communities, and they’ve been made to live totally apart from everyone. It’s been thought such people were severely unclean, and they’ve been considered so afflicted because of some type of sinfulness. People with leprosy have almost always been treated as complete outcasts and this was certainly true in the time of Jesus.
However, in today’s Gospel we see that Jesus had
great compassion for those with leprosy, and that he accepted them with
care and love, and that he cured them. I believe his compassion for
people with leprosy was a kind of paradigm for the way in which he
treated all of the “needy people” he encountered. This was
especially true for him and regarding those who might have been
classified in some way or another as “sinful and stricken.”
Jesus reached out to the sinners, to the sick, to the unfortunate, and
to the poor, and he affirmed their human dignity. Jesus made it clear
to others that such people were to be treated as equals within both
spiritual and secular communities.
In the Gospel, Jesus was moved with
great pity when the man with leprosy asked him for a cure. Not only did
he cure the man, but in doing so he also reached out and touched him. –
He touched him. – This part of the story is very
significant for us who are Christians. Jesus could have just made the
decision to cure the man, and the healing could have been done without
any physical contact. Let’s remember again that in those days, people
who had leprosy were considered to be extremely unclean, impure, and
certainly “untouchable.” The commonly held belief was that if
someone touched an impure person, then they themselves would have become
defiled as well. In the Gospel, Jesus actually reached out and touched
the man, and he made demonstrable physical contact with someone who was
considered to be “untouchable.” The people who saw this action
were surely shocked, amazed, and perhaps even scandalized.
Why did the
Son of God and the Lord of the Universe do this? I believe it was
because he wanted to show others, and to prove without a doubt by his
own actions, that our God has unconditional love for each and every one
of his children. For our God, there are no “untouchable people!”
Reflecting upon this, the questions we might ask ourselves are as follows: “Do we believe that Jesus reaches out to us with love, and that he desires to heal us of our own sins, sicknesses and pains?” And “are
we ourselves able to love, and to reach out to people in our
communities, those who might be considered to be unclean, impure and/or
untouchable?”
I hope that each one of us may follow the example of Jesus, and that we can reach out and metaphorically “touch others”
who are in most need of our forgiveness, our compassion, our love and
our concern. Let’s each do this with the unconditional love of God, a love with no limits!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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