SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (B)
FIRST READING (Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "If some one has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants. If the man is leprous and unclean, the priest shall declare him unclean by reason of the sore on his head. "The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 32: 1-2, 5, 7, 11)
Refrain: I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
1) Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile. (Refrain:)
2) Then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the Lord," and you took away the guilt of my sin. (Refrain:)
3) Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you just; exult, all you upright of heart. (Refrain:)
SECOND READING (1 Corinthians 10:31 - 11:1)
Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
(Copyright 1970, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2001 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. Washington D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Copyright 1970, 1997, 1998 Contraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
The English translation of some Psalm responses, some Alleluia and Gospel verses and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, some Summaries, and the Titles and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass copyright 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc., Washington D.C. All rights reserved.
The poetic English translation of the sequences of the Roman Missal are taken from the Roman Missal approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, copyright 1964 by the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission of ICEL.)
In order to better understand today's gospel passage, we need a little background information. First of all, we need to understand what is meant by the term "leprosy". In our Lord's day, the word did not mean only what is called "Hansen's disease" today. It is believed that "the Hebrew word for leprosy, tsarath, included any kind of creeping skin disease. For example, it seems to have been used to include psoriasis, a disease which covers the body with white scales, and which would give rise to the phrase 'a leper as white as snow.' It seems also to have included ring-worm, which is still very common in the East. Thus, with medical knowledge in an extremely primitive state, diagnosis of a skin disease did not distinguish between the different kinds and included both the deadly and incurable ones, as well as the non-fatal and comparatively harmless ones." (1)
The second thing we need to understand are the social implications of leprosy. In our Lord's day, "any of these skin diseases rendered the sufferer unclean. He was banished from the fellowship of men; he had to dwell alone outside the camp; he had to wear torn clothing and shave his head and had to give warning of his presence by crying out, 'Unclean, unclean!' We see the same thing in the Middle Ages. The priest, wearing his stole and carrying a crucifix, led the leper into the church, and read the burial service over him. The leper was a someone who was already dead, though still alive. He had to wear a black garment that all might recognize and had to live in a leper-house. He must not come into a church service but while the service went on, he might peer through the leper 'squint' cut in the walls. The leper had not only to bear the physical pain of his disease; he had to bear the mental anguish and the heart-break of being completely banished from human society and totally shunned." (1)
With this background information, we can now better understand and appreciate our Lord's reactions to the leper. First of all, although lepers were ostracized, as we just heard, our Lord "touched him" and made him whole. No one has to tell us the importance of touch in our lives. (Might talk about the impact of the pandemic on our lives over the last few years and having to avoid touching, hugging, etc., to even losing loved ones in hospitals without any contact by loved ones.) Study after study has shown that infants who are deprived of their mother's touch do not grow up to be as healthy as those who have been constantly touched. Notice that our Lord didn't heal the leper from a distance, but came right up to him and cured him with his touch. St. Francis of Assisi also interacted with lepers during his life, but he wasn't always willing to touch them.
- St. Francis is often depicted as a man who loved others, a man who was always there to "give a cup of cold water" to one of Jesus' "lowly ones." But there were many lepers around in Francis' time and at one point in his life, he had a terrible fear of lepers. Then one day when he was out for a walk, he heard the bells of a leper (in the middle ages, instead of hollering "unclean," lepers were forced to carry little bells and ring them to warn passersby of their presence) and a leper emerged from a clump of trees. The man was horribly disfigured. Half of his nose had been eaten away; his hands were stubs without fingers; his lips were oozing with white infection. Instead of giving in to his fears, Francis ran forward and embraced the leper. And his life was never the same after that episode. It was a milestone on his journey. There was new openness to God, new sensitivity to others, new energy in his ministry and in his entire life. Expressing his love for others by embracing the leper was such a radical move for Francis that it opened up the channels of God's love in unprecedented ways. (2)
So the fact that our Lord touched the leper points out the second thing which is so striking in this gospel passage, namely the compassion which our Lord had for the leper. Note that Mark says our Lord was "moved with pity". In our own lives, compassion is a necessary Christian virtue. Sometimes, it is something we can easily forget, as the author of this story discovered. He writes:
- I was in high school before I realized my father had a birth defect. He had a harelip and cleft palate, but to me he looked like he had always looked since the day I was born. I can remember kissing him goodnight once when I was young and asking if my nose would go flat after a lifetime of kisses. He assured me that it would not, but I remember a twinkle in his eyes. I am sure he was marveling about a daughter who loved him so much she thought that her kisses, not thirty-three operations, had reshaped his face.
My father was kind, patient, thoughtful and loving. He was my hero and first love. He never met a person in whom he could not find good. He knew the first names of janitors, secretaries and CEO's. In truth, I think he liked the janitors the best. He always inquired about their families, who they thought would win the World Series and how life was treating them. He cared enough to listen to their responses and remember their answers.
Dad never let his disfigurement rule his life. When he was considered too unattractive for sales work, he took a bike out on deliveries and created his own route. When the army wouldn't let him enlist, he volunteered. He even once asked a Miss America contestant out for a date. "If you don't ask you'll never know," he told me later. He rarely talked on the phone, because people had a hard time understanding him. When they met him in person with his positive attitude and quick smile, people just seemed to take his disability in stride. He married a beautiful woman, and they had seven healthy children, all of whom thought the sun and moon rose in his face.
When I was a "sophisticated teen," however, I barely tolerated being in the same room with this same man who for a decade had endured me watching him shave every morning. My friends were chic, trendy and popular; my dad was old and outdated.
One night I came home with a car full of friends, and we stopped at my house for midnight snacks. My father came out of his bedroom and welcomed my friends, pouring sodas and making popcorn. One of my friends pulled me aside and asked, "What's wrong with your dad?"
Suddenly, I looked across the room and saw him for the first time with unbiased eyes. I was in shock. My dad was a freak! I made everyone leave immediately and took them home. I felt so foolish. How could I have never seen it before?
Later that night I cried, not because I realized that my dad was different, but because I realized what a pathetic, shallow person I was becoming. Here was the sweetest, most loving person you could ask for, and I had judged him on his looks.
That night I learned that when you love someone totally and then see them through the eyes of ignorance, fear or contempt, you begin to understand the profound depths of prejudice. I had seen my dad as strangers did, as someone different, deformed and not normal. Not remembering that he was a good person who loved his wife, his children and his fellow human beings. He had joys and sorrows and had already lived a lifetime of people judging him on his appearance. I was grateful that I got to know him first, before others showed me his flaws.
Dad is gone now. Empathy, compassion and concern for fellow human beings are the legacy he left me. They are the greatest gifts a parent could leave a child--the capacity to love others without considering their social stature, race, religion or disabilities, the gifts of joyful perseverance and optimism. The lofty goal of being so loving in my life that I receive enough kisses to make my nose go flat. (3)
I think there are amazing similarities between this story and the story of the leper in today's gospel passage. And there are also very similar lessons to be learned from both of them. But probably the most important lesson of all is what the author says at the end of her story: "Empathy, compassion and concern for fellow human beings are the legacy (my father) left me". As Christians, we too have been left a similar legacy by the one who has loved us unconditionally. Christ saw beyond the outward disease of the leper to the inner beauty of that man. In the same way, Christ looks beyond our sinful nature to the goodness that he originally created in each one of us.
We need to have compassion on one another because Christ has had compassion on us. We can do no better than to imitate his example and welcome those who are most ostracized by society, such as the poor, the homeless, the sick, the disabled and the terminally ill. Then when we come before him on that last judgment day, he will forgive the sins that we have committed because of the helping hand, and the loving touch, that we have extended to those most in need of it.
1. Adapted from the Gospel of Mark, copyright 1975 by William Barclay. Reprinted with permission from St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2. Adapted from Who Is Your Leper? Reprinted with permission from the Sunday Sermons CD-ROM Collection, copyright 1997 by Voicings Publications, Margate, NJ.
3. What's Wrong with Your Dad? Copyright 1999 by Carol Darnell. Carol was born in Lubbock, Texas, and is a wife and proud mother of three children: Nicole, Kyle and Kevin. She has been married for twenty years. She is a preschool gymnastic instructor in Corona, California. Her article was written as a loving tribute to her father, Lawrence Anderson, who passed away in 1989. Currently writing a humorous book about parenting, she also performs stand-up comedy. Comments may be sent to her at cdfun@netzero.net . Reprinted with the author's permission from Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul, copyright 1999 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL.
(Copyright 2015 by the Spirit through Deacon Sil Galvan, with a little help from the friends noted above. Permission is freely granted for use, in whole or in part, in oral presentations. For permission to use in writing, please contact the human intermediary at deaconsil@comcast.net.)
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Lord Jesus, you bring comfort to those who are afflicted. Lord, have mercy.
Christ Jesus, you came to make us whole in body and spirit. Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you came to set us free from the bondage of sin. Lord, have mercy.
The Mass is ended. Go in peace as servants of Christ to bring healing and comfort to those in need.
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
February 11, 2024
Celebrant: Christ heard and answered the prayer of the leper in his need. Confident that he will also hear us in our need, we bring our prayers and petitions before him.
Deacon/Lector: Our response is "Lord, hear our prayer."
That the leaders of the Church will be instruments of God's healing presence in the lives of the members of their communities, we pray to the Lord.
That the leaders of the nations of the world will do all in their power to bring peace on earth and end the wars in Ukraine and Israel, we pray to the Lord.
That the sick, the terminally ill and those who are grieving the loss of a loved one will feel the healing touch of Christ through our caring concern, we pray to the Lord.
That all caregivers, including doctors, nurses and home health care personnel, will care for those entrusted to their care as they would care for Christ himself, we pray to the Lord.
That, on this World Marriage Day, all husbands and wives will be examples of God’s love to one another, we pray to the Lord.
That all of our brothers and sisters will be treated as our equals in the sight of God regardless of their race, color, nationality or religion, we pray to the Lord.
For all of the intentions we hold in our hearts and which we now recall in silence. (Pause) For all of these intentions, we pray to the Lord.
Celebrant: Merciful Father, you sent your Son to heal us of our infirmities. Grant us the grace of your Spirit to empower us to share that healing with one another. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.