As I read through the Mass Readings for this weekend, I was struck by God’s invitation to healing and to community. The first reading (Leviticus 13.1-2, 45-46) is a pretty technical direction for Israelites about dealing with leprosy; when someone comes down with leprosy, they “shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of their head be dishevelled and shall cover their upper lip and cry out, ‘unclean, unclean.’” They also live apart from the rest of the community, which is quite a harsh reality for the leprous person. From the perspective of the leper though, perhaps he can carry out these instructions as an act of love for his community. He acknowledges that he needs to distance himself, that other people don’t get sick. For himself, he mourns his sickness and awaits with hope the potential of health returning to him.
We can apply this reality to our spiritual lives. When we are trapped in sin, it naturally puts a barrier between us and our community of faith. When we recognize our sin, we can repent, and mourn, with (metaphorically speaking) torn clothes and dishevelled hair; we acknowledge our helplessness before God and our sorrow for having looked away from Him. Is that the end of the story? Do we, like the leper, mourn and weep alone, ever awaiting a potential cure that may never come? I think the Gospel gives us the answer.
In the Gospel today (Mark 1.40–45), a man with leprosy comes to Jesus and says “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus reaches out His hand, touches the leper (who perhaps hasn’t had physical contact with another person for a long time), and says “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus then sends him to the priests to give the offering, and thus to be reincorporated into the community.
What does this mean for us? Perhaps we’re not struggling against diseases of the body, but we struggle with our inclination to sin, with spiritual disease. Sometimes that disease is such that we are alone, isolated, distant from our community. We may believe we will never be made well. And yet, the leper in today’s Gospel took the risk of faith in Jesus’ power, and boldness in asking Him. Jesus cures him, cleaning away his disease and allowing the man to enter back into the community he had been isolated from.
We need to have this boldness in our spiritual life. No matter how diseased we are, and no matter how much despair we’ve felt, we need only ask Jesus to reach out to us and heal us, and He will. Particularly, we find healing in the Sacrament of Penance. The priest acts in the person of Christ; God completely washes away our sins, restoring our relationship with Him and with His Church. Community in God’s Church is essentially tied to our relationship with Christ. When we are isolated, the spiritual life becomes impossible, but when we are in community, we can build each other up. Our relationship with others opens us up in our relationship with Christ, and vice versa. In today’s second reading (1 Corinthians 10.31–11.1), St. Paul counsels the Corinthians in the following way: “Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.” Being a part of a community is a sacrifice at times. We give up certain goods for the good of others. But this sacrifice, this tension, this relationship makes our spiritual health stronger, and builds us to live out our relationship with Christ.
God Bless!
Sean Ulrich – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
Photo, Karunalaya Hospital, India, foto by A. Danilewicz SVD, www.verbisci.pl