Jesus Touches The Untouchable!

(Homily 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

     The readings of today presents one of those scorching human conditions and predicaments, that is illness, but in the context of our readings, we are not just talking about illness tout court, but here is all about a terrible and excruciating disease: leprosy. A disease that defiles and separates the victim from others and from God, at least judging from the popular belief at that time. But Jesus brought a turnaround situation and overhauled the mindset of the people of his time. He touched the untouchable and he continues to touch those desperate human conditions of our own time, we just need to muster courage, have faith in him and approach him. To that our ugly situation he will also stretch out his hand! Jesus does not frown at the concrete cases of misery in front of him.

     The first reading from the book of Leviticus (13:1-2.44-46) is the beginning and the end of the section on leprosy. The disease as envisaged in this book cuts across what modern medicine classifies as leprosy per se, for it includes other skin diseases. The patient according to the law is required to report to the priest, who has to diagnose the disease, though not as a physician, rather as a minister of Torah. And it is also the priest that confirms his healing, so as to be reinstated to the community. The picture we have of the leper in this first reading is by no means humane. Apart from the physical pain that could come from the illness, the individual also faces the psychological pain of isolation while outwardly bearing all the dehumanising categorization of one who is unfit to dwell with others, who are free from the illness.

     Secondly, the situation is also spiritually chastising as the leper has to go about crying: Unclean! Unclean!! A situation that is equal to one saying: “I am a sinner, I am a sinner!” Therefore, from the foregoing, it is easy to identify the connection between leprosy and sin. In fact, during the time of Moses it was believed that whoever was infected by leprosy sinned in the first place. And added to these distortions, is the veritable fact that sin creates a barrier between us and God (cf. Is. 59:2), and here comes the spiritual separation. This is where the isolation comes in. Symbolically, we could say that sin has a way of taking us outside God’s camp, just as the lepers had to stay outside the camp of the Israelites. (An example could be the experience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2). It is against this backdrop that the first reading serves as a background reading for the Gospel narrative.

     In the Gospel reading (Mk. 1:40-45) we are presented with a spectacular reversal of the approach to leprosy by our Lord Jesus Christ. The poor leper had two burdens to carry: his illness and separation from the community. Lepers were to live outside the village or town as a result of the contagious nature of the disease (Lev. 13:46). In the narrative we are told that a leper came to Jesus begging and kneeling said: “If you will, you can make me clean” (Mk. 1:40). From this first scene we see the leper breaking the social norm or protocol which prevented lepers from having access to those who are not lepers. We can also observe that the man did not ask for healing but cleansing in the manner of David after his sin (Psalm 51:2). He was much concerned about his uncleanliness more than his illness. Here he went beyond his physical illness and asked for spiritual rebirth and by that he got everything, both healing and cleansing.

     Now let us look at the reaction of our Lord Jesus Christ to the request of the leper. We are told that he was first moved with pity. God is compassionate about our situations. God is not jubilant over our miseries and failures like some of us could be over the situations of others. Going back to our point of departure, the real leprosy is sin and the real isolation is being cut away from God. Actually a leper experiences three kinds of separation: separation from himself, separation from others and separation from God. In our limitations we often fall into sin and also get disconnected or isolated from God. The episode in the Gospel reading is a pertinent assurance to us that there is a remedy to this situation and this can be found in Jesus Christ. For that to happen the person involved needs to approach Jesus Christ like in the case of the leper. Going to Jesus Christ will offer the individual the opportunity of being touched by the Lord and being reintegrated. For when Jesus healed the leper, he did not just heal his illness, but he restored him to the community. Man is a social being, and thus he has been created for the community. For this, St. Paul emphasized that “we though many, form one single body” (1Cor. 10:17). On the other hand, if we remain unmoved, our situation will not be moved. There were surely many lepers in their settlement but only one decided to come to our Lord. A fascinating point here, is that while Jesus walked away from Capernaum (Mk. 1:38), from healing there, on his way, he could not say no to this leper who really is in need of healing.

     The cured leper is told not to say anything to anyone, but he disobeyed and his cure became a talk of the town. This gave rise to Jesus withdrawal from the country, to the point that Jesus began to hide himself. Mark must have added this annotation against the understanding of Jesus as a mere Wonder-worker. In the passage of last Sunday’s gospel Jesus used command to silence the demon, but today he intended to use it to silence the cured leper. The purpose of this order revolves around the idea of not allowing the signs to offuscate the ultimate miracle of the cross. Indeed, the real enigma here is that the command of secrecy was disobeyed. For the man goes and talks about his healing freely. We see similar occurrences in (cf. Mk. 1:34; 3:13; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). This is typical of Mark’s Messianic secret. Upon consideration of this theory at the heart of Marcan Gospel, we have to ask not what was Jesus’ purpose for giving an injunction, he probably knows will not be kept, rather what does Mark intend theologically, by the aforementioned injunction? The answer points to the fact that Mark’s intention was to demonstrate that the messiahship of Jesus is a mystery that cannot be exposed prematurely, for it is to be understood properly and deeply in the light of the cross. But however, it can’t be totally suppressed!

     Extrapolating from the first reading, the priest is the functionary that confirms one a leper, he also confirms one cleansed just as our Lord mentioned in the Gospel reading today. This actually points to the sanctifying office of the priest. The priest stands between God and the people; appropriately called Alter Christus. By asking the leper to go to the priest our Lord Jesus Christ evidently confirms the work of the priest as the eye and mouthpiece of God. This links us to the responsorial psalm (32), which symbolically presents the reality of human weakness, sinfulness and God’s readiness to forgive. In that bid, as the leper goes to the priests, so a sinner comes and confesses his sins to God, through a priest (this is well orchestrated in the second stanza) in order to receive forgiveness and spiritual healing. And as the Lenten season is so imminent, let us make recourse to the Sacrament of reconciliation, for our own healing too!

     Indeed, the leper mustard courage and pleaded Jesus: “If you wish, you can make me well”. He pleaded with every amount of discretion “if you wish”. And Jesus had compassion on him, stretched out his hands and touched him. He touched the untouchable, and touching him he loved him, and loving him he healed him, and after healing him, he restored him. The response of Jesus to the supplication of the leper is so simple and consoling, “I want, be healed”. The hit track of today’s message is that God wants his children healed, he is a gracious and merciful God. Jesus demonstrated that our needs of healing and liberation surpass the demands of law and customs. Above all else, taking the Gospel serious will propel us to touch the lepers in our own time, the abandoned, the dejected and rejected. May Jesus heal every form of infirmity in us threatening our full realization as God’s children! And may He surround you with cries of deliverance as in Psalm 32:7. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)