Mark 1: 40-45
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021124.cfm
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Lord, our God, you sent your Son into the world to bear our infirmities
and to endure our sufferings. Heal your servants who are sick,
that your blessing will give them strength to overcome weakness
through the power of patience and the comfort of hope
and that with your aid they will soon be restored to health.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
(Book of Blessings: blessing of the sick)
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One of the greatest social problems we have today is the very real experience of human isolation, especially among our youth, it may even be identified as a social leprosy. The almost obsessive use of social media as a means of communication has created both positive fruit and also has been found down right dangerous in extreme cases. Those who pose on your personal page may or may not be who they present themselves to be. One may have allegedly thousands of “friends” who are nothing more than strangers one may never meet in person. Building up expectations in artificial communication distorts the real purpose of human interaction.
I know
that many use such means to communicate with family and friends but when this
means of sharing becomes the sole way, it may be well classified as addictive
behavior. Who has not seen a family sitting in a restaurant around a table with
everyone’s face in their phone. As we
wait in a doctor’s office, in the bank, in the airport, etc what do we do? Open the phone, stare and pass the time despite
thousands of fellow humans around me. The rise in teen suicide is a very
troubling statistic. The old motto for a
large phone company, “reach out and touch someone,” may well be wiser than we
think.
In
this Sunday’s Gospel again from the first chapter of Mark, we find Jesus
expressing himself in a powerful means of human communication. As a man with leprosy approaches him,
astounding in itself since such a condition forbade lepers from approaching anyone
so closely, this man kneels in a posture of adoration and desperation. He pleads with Jesus that his leprosy be
healed: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Undeniable proof of the man’s
faith in Jesus and deeply compelling.
Jesus
reaches out and touches the man seeing him not as a person with a repulsive
disease but as a child of God who is suffering greatly both physically and
socially. What Jesus did in making human contact was equally forbidden for no
one was permitted to touch a leper.
Since this unfortunate disease was seen as a sign of punishment for some
great sin, those who would touch him would render themselves unclean, forbidden
to travel in social circles and be banished from public interaction with
everyone, even one’s family members.
Both
Jesus and the man are lawbreakers! Yet, in the face of human suffering such a
law has no power. What does Jesus
do? He acts out of compassion, pity, for
this man, identifies with the pain he is experiencing, and in response to the
man’s faith, touches him and instantly restores him to perfect health. What healed the man? Was it Jesus’ power, yes, but even more it
was the love he showed for him.
It
is love that heals, a love rooted in Christ that flows from him to bind up and
have such a positive effect as to transform this man’s life forever.
Yet,
one caution that Jesus gives him – Don’t tell anyone I did this. Strange in a sense. He advises him to follow the expected ritual
spelled out in Leviticus in the sacred Torah. We heard of this in our first
reading. The priest will officially
declare the man clean or unclean and allow him back into the worshiping
community, back to social life and Temple worship. Why would Jesus warn him “sternly” not to
tell anyone and did he really believe the man would keep quiet about this
astounding event?
Certainly,
our Lord did not want crowds amassing around him simply to be healed. He is not a healer only nor some ancient
magician and until his mission is completed with his death and resurrection, he
must remain somewhat a mystery. He is
Lord and savior who has come to rescue us from the grip of sin and death. He is the preacher “par excellence.”
Yet,
despite all this the man ignores Jesus’ warning and does exactly the opposite,
another law broken? No, the healed one becomes
a true evangelist. He cannot contain himself for he has come to see in Jesus
the God of Israel who has worked in and through him. What was done for him, may be done for all
who come to our Lord. And, the crowds
continued to come.
How
can we continue to become healers in our own right? Through love for others, we can truly reach
out and touch those around us. Through
our caring, compassion, through our personal encounter with the Lord in the
eucharist which sends us out as disciples on mission. Who is a leper near you? What are the signs of leprosy in our society
today? What member of your family or
your circle of friends may need a touch of compassion, forgiveness, or a
hospital visit?
As
we are about to begin the penitential graced season of Lent this Wednesday, may
we recognize the distortion of sin within our own hearts, our own burden of
uncleanness. God continues to heal the broken hearted and in the sacrament of
confession we are touched by Christ through the priest and healed within,
restored to the community as one who has experienced this pity of the
Lord.
May
we be true healers to all around us.
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