Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 32: 1-2, 5, 11
2nd Reading: 1 Cor 10: 31-11:1
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
Over my Christmas break I was assigned to a parish in Knoxville, Tennessee that had a school attached to it. One morning at the school's morning Mass the readings spoke about leprosy. The priest asked the children if they knew what a leper was and a bunch of hands shot up in the air. He called on a girl in the front pew who was in kindergarten and she answered with all the confidence in the world that a leper was an animal with black spots on it.
So what exactly is a leper and how does leprosy pertain to all of us?
Of course at least 99.9% of us know that a leper and a leopard are two totally different things. Today's reading from Leviticus informs us about leprosy and tells us what action must be taken with those who suffer from its burden. We are told that lepers are those who suffer from the rotting of their flesh and thus they are proclaimed as being unclean and need to be thrown outside of the community, so that it will not spread to others. When we move into the New Testament with the Gospel of Mark we see this same amount of fear being placed inside of the leper. The priest of the temple had already proclaimed this man as unclean and thus he was thrown outside of his community. To be a leper is not a pleasant thing, not only because of the rotting of your flesh, but most importantly because you have been separated from your community. I can imagine no punishment greater than having to leave behind everything that I know and never being given the opportunity to go back to it. To put it simply the life of a leper is doomed because everyone is afraid of you, nobody knows how to cure you, and you have been separated from friends and family.
Of course a leper is so foreign to us that we might as well be talking about leopards. Indeed a leper might be foreign to us, but we have more in relation with them then we may realize. If we glance into the lives of the people of this world including those who live in Jasper or attend Holy Family Church we will be able to see the life of the leper being played out continuously. There are those who are present who feel that they have been punished by disease and know not where to turn in their pain. People who have felt the sorrow of separation through divorce or children moving far away for school or work, and yet they have been left behind and now feel cast off. Maybe work or school may be weighing heavily upon you to the point that you feel a great pressure that can never get better. No matter where we find ourselves we can defiantly say that we each share in our moments which connect us to the leper who has been cast out of the community.
When we speak about our resemblance to the leper we cannot forget how we have made ourselves unclean through committing sin. Since the Fall of humanity through the sin of Adam and Eve we have been unclean. Despite having our sins washed away in the waters of baptism we continue to fall into sin and make ourselves unclean. Going back to the wisdom of children I think of a class that I once attended which concerned original, mortal, and venial sin. The assignment was to draw a picture which represented each of these sins. Mortal sin was often depicted as killing somebody while venial sin was often drawn as stealing. One girl hit the nail on the head because she drew a sick person for the one who had committed venial sin and drew a person placed inside of a body bag concerning the person who committed mortal sin. This girl did not confuse a leopard with a leper here, but instead was able to recognize the reality of sin within our lives. Sin is our own choice to enter into the life of the leper because through it we have decided that we want to be cast off from the community. When we have been cast off from the community we have placed ourselves in the trap of the body bag that represents mortal sin.
Thankfully Christ hears each of our cries as he heard the cry of the leper in the Gospel of Mark. Upon hearing this cry which was made with great faith Christ stretched out his hand and touched him. At the instant that he was touched he was cured from everything that ailed him. Thanks to this healing touch the leper was now able to become part of the community again. No longer would this man have to dwell on the outside, but finally through his great faith was able to enter into relationship with Christ. No matter how busy our lives become or how much we live in fear we can no longer live in exile. With great faith we should come before Christ and hand over all our joys and fears. No matter what we bring to Him He will not run away in fear, but will be prepared to console and heal us.
The Church extends its hands to us like Christ extended His hand to the leper. We have been given Sacraments that are not here to punish by casting us off, but instead welcome us to enter into the love and mercy of God. Love and mercy is shown through each of the seven sacraments which are presented to us. If we are sick and in danger of death, Anointing of the Sick is present to bring healing to our troubled bodies and souls. No matter the sin that dwells within us we know that the Sacrament of Reconciliation exists to extend its arm of mercy and forgiveness to each of us. We also have the great Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood that is found in the Holy Eucharist. It through this Sacrament that people of different backgrounds join together as one community of faith.
When we are troubled, filled with fear, and believe that we are all alone may we place our trust in the extended hand of Christ because it will only be here that we will be proclaimed as clean.
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