Over the past few weeks, Mark’s Gospel has revealed to us Jesus’ healing powers on one hand and the power of faith on the other. Today we are confronted with the leper. The first reading paints a very dismal picture of a leper’s life.
For us to fully appreciate and understand today’s readings, we need to first reflect on and name the lepers in our society today. Would they be those with HIV/AIDS? Would they be unwed mothers or women who have had abortions? Would they be the homeless, the mentally ill, people on death row? Would they be priests and others who have molested children? Would they be gays and lesbians? Would they be the divorced, the one %, a gang member, a family member, the neighbor, a co-worker? Who are those we might call “unclean” or have ostracized?
And what about each of us? What are our own blemishes, our disabilities, our need for healing and forgiveness? The gospel today invites us to enter the mystery of our own disabilities, hidden or otherwise. We should not fear those parts of us we hide away such as our failures and sins, our vanities and deceptions, our jealousies. Just as with the leper, Jesus will reach out and touch us—it is only our denial that prevents us from healing.
The scene in today’s gospel occurs during a longer passage which describes a Sabbath day in the public life of Jesus. It involves Jesus going to the synagogue, healing the sick and driving out evil spirits.
Then this leper approaches Jesus. He is desperate. He falls on his knees before Jesus, his last resort. There is incredible faith in his heart-rending appeal: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” This is not to say that Jesus only heals those he wants to heal, but that Jesus has only to wish for his healing and it will be. It expresses the man’s absolute faith in the power of Jesus. He has already seen it at work in the other people who were healed that day. It is this faith which again and again in the Gospel is thenecessary and sufficient condition for us being healed–made whole again.
It is this faith that leads the leper and each of us to seek healing. But, how can we describe this “faith?” Would its opposite be doubt? Or fear?” We often speak of having faith knowing that everything will be well; that we can move forward with courage, with hope, maybe even with certainty. But faith must be something more for all of us who did not personally witness Jesus’ healing power. For me, and maybe for you as well, faith is my response to an awesome God, who knows me by name, who loves me unconditionally and in who I can truly find mercy, forgiveness and healing. And, as with the leper, faith makes it possible for me to have hope even in the most desperate times. (pause)
In the Gospel, Jesus is filled with a deep sense of compassion for the man’s plight. Jesus then does something very significant: he physically touches the leper to indicate his compassion. He heals the leper of his physical illness.
But that is not the end of the story because the physical healing alone does not solve the man’s problem. He has still to be reintegrated into the community – in a sense welcomed back into the community. This is the second part of the healing process. He is told to go to the priest who will examine him and then pronounce him fit to re-enter society—a responsibility, originating in our baptism, we now have in our society-to help re-integrate into our communities those who have been shunned, those who we have ostracized.
At the same time, the leper is strongly warned by Jesus not to say anything to anyone about the healing, but that doesn’t quite make sense given all the others that day who were healed. So what does Jesus mean by this request? Jesus wanted no sensationalism. The healing was for the man’s sake; given in humility, not seeking recognition. Jesus’ mission was to bring wholeness into people’s lives, but he did not want to be seen as just a wonder worker. Jesus’ healing work cannot be understood apart from his teaching about how we should lead our lives.
Even today there are people who rush to this or that shrine, or practice many devotions—while having little awareness of what really constitutes the life of the Christian—bringing about the kingdom of God here and now—proclaiming the Good News of Jesus by word and by our actions.
Indeed, how could the man refrain from telling everybody about his wonderful experience of coming in contact with the healing power of Jesus? He becomes an ardent evangelizer, a spreader of the Good News – something we are all called to be. It was no wonder that people went out into deserted places looking for Jesus.
Are we looking for Jesus? On Wednesday we enter into Lent—a time of prayer, of fasting, of alms giving. It is a time of conversion, of mutual forgiveness—a time of beginning anew. It is a time to ask yourselves, what has your experience of knowing Jesus been like? How come we don’t have the enthusiasm of this former leper? So much of our religious living is focused just on ourselves. It is perhaps worth noting that the man’s experience was the result of having first been the victim of a terrible cross. He was not afraid to reach out to Jesus. He had faith. And, for each of us, it is often in our crosses that grace appears—if we are only open to it !.
The gospel is an invitation for us to enter into the being of Christ himself and to see our crosses and the crosses of others as opportunities for grace—if we only have faith. And, what better time than during Lent to find and name our faith anew!
In the Eucharistic prayer, we say as a community of faith “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” And, I can imagine Jesus saying in response “of course I want to heal you.” It is with that confidence, that, in faith, we can reach out to the shunned, the marginalized, and the ostracized who await our touch. It is with that confidence we enter into season of Lent.