6th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Fr. Leo
Our first reading from Leviticus and our gospel from Mark, deal with leprosy. Leviticus demands from the sick person honesty in being identified as a person with Leprosy. The honesty of the ill person leads to his expulsion from the community. Isolated and alone he or she would have to stay away lest he or she made others sick.
Given the lack of a cure for such a deadly disease, isolation seems the only possible response to save the community. We contrast that with Mark’s gospel where the person with leprosy comes to Jesus and Jesus touches him, heals him and sends him off to get permission from the priest to enter the community again.
Jesus’ actions heals and counters isolation. Jesus’ response meant risk, but a risk in faith that healed. When we are in situations like this, where helping others will be at the expense of our selves, how are we to respond? After all, we aren’t Jesus.
No, we are not Jesus, but with his Spirit, we can heal as well. Though it may be a different healing. What will make us faithful to Jesus is our response to those suffering among us. Will we be keep a safe distance from the poor, or will we enter their world at our own peril? Are we called to love that much?
St. Damian gives us a model to follow. Damian took the risk to join the people with leprosy to minister to them despite the risk. For him, loving as Christ loved us, was more important than preserving his life. In the end, Damian contracted leprosy and died. Now he is admired as a saint who models for us how to love as Christ loves.
So when we are at those moments when we are considering our response to those in trouble, we might consider the option of taking a risk for love. Such risk requires a great love of God and needs to be inspired and sustained with the same power that Jesus displayed in curing the man with leprosy. So in a way, we all need the healing power of the Holy Spirit to be whole and healthy in the calling that Christ has placed in our hearts.
So, let us pray that our hearts be open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit so we may come to know the joy of living in Christ.