Readings: Lev 13:1-2,44-46; Psa 31:1-2,5,11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45
THEME: “IF YOU WISH TO, YOU CAN HEAL ME”.
Dearest friends, the readings of today speak about how leprosy renders one unclean, and in order not to pass over such illness, the leper has to isolate himself from others. But there is one person from whom a leper must not isolate himself, the only person who can heal the leprosy and stop the uncleanliness and the isolation from the community of God’s people:
a. Do Not Pass Your Leprosy to Others
The first reading presents us with the problem of leprosy among the people of Israel. To understand how leprosy was seen among the people of Israel, we only need to remember the most dangerous moments of Covid19. I remember my first experience during the early outbreak of that deadly virus. We were in a bus passing through the Vatican. Now as we were moving, one elderly woman entered in one of the stations. No sooner than she entered, did she begin to cough profusely and to sneeze. When our bus reached the next station, everyone in the bus, except the woman, came down. I thought I was the only person running away from the woman, and that others came down because they had reached their destination. It was when the next bus going the same direction came, and all the people who came down from the first bus entered this one that I realized that we were all in the same situation, in the same health-security run. We were not running away from the woman because she was evil, rather we were running away because there was this deadly virus, of which signs she was manifesting, and which no one wanted to contract.
In the first reading, God commanded that anyone who shows the sign of having contracted leprosy, must be declared unclean and he/she must live apart from others. But we have to note that the uncleanliness of the leper is because of the leprosy such that once the leprosy is cured, his/her uncleanliness is removed. Therefore, the effort of the leper should not be to fight in order not to be considered unclean but to fight in order to be healed of the cause of his/her uncleanliness, because where there is no leprosy, there is no uncleanliness. And because everybody is prone to contracting this leprosy, the leper must save others from contracting it by isolating himself/herself.
Dearest friends, each one of us has this deadly virus of sin that continues to render us unclean. We must try as much as possible not to pass on this virus to others. Our effort should not be to justify our sins but to seek solutions to be healed of them. We must live apart from others. That is to say, we must not lure others into our sinful lifestyle either by trying to justify and confuse the weak ones or by moral intimidation and spiritual/psychological manipulation.
We have to accept that we are spiritually sick and in need of God’s healing.
b. Do Not Live Apart from Christ
In the gospel we see a leper coming to Jesus to seek for his healing. The Levitical law forbids a leper from coming out in public, and from going into a meeting with others lest he passes on the leprosy to them. But this man knew that coming to Jesus, he is not coming to someone who is prone to contracting the disease, rather he is coming to someone who has the power to heal him of the leprosy. While isolating himself from others, he realizes that there is someone he cannot isolate himself from: Jesus the Christ.
I want to draw your attention to the prayer of this leper. He says to Jesus: “If you want to, you can cure me”. I want us to pay attention to the two verbs (to wish, and to be able) and the way the leper uses them in his prayer. The leper is not in doubt if Jesus is capable of healing him. He knows that Jesus can heal him. But what he does not know is if Jesus would want to heal him. He never doubted the power of Christ; he never doubted the capacity of Christ, he only acknowledges the will of Christ (if you wish…), thereby submitting his own will to the will of Christ. Yes, he wants to be healed, but is that the will of Christ? The leper’s prayer shows us that Jesus (God) can do everything, but it is only if he wishes to.
Hence in as much as we pray to God who can do all things, we must always bear in mind that God only does what, how, and when he wills (Psa 115:3). This is confirmed in the response of Jesus when he says to the leper, “I want to, be healed”. The healing of the leper comes because Jesus wants it. No wonder Jesus teaches us that our worry in prayer should not be if God is capable (because there is nothing God cannot do cf. Matt 19:26) but if it is the will of God (cf. Matt 26:39; 6:10).
Dearest friends, there is nothing like we are too bad or too messed up to come before the Lord. Stop hiding from God. Remember if this leper had not come out to meet Jesus, Jesus might have passed him, leaving him in his leprosy and uncleanliness. If we keep on running away from God with our sins, hiding from the saving and merciful face of Jesus, avoiding an eye contact with the cross of Christ, the cross of our redemption, tagging ourselves ‘beyond repair and salvation’ or ‘out of reach of God’s mercy’, then we may remain with our sinful viruses, dying and decaying.
In the gospel, we see the concrete example of the exchange of state that happens between God and man. Before, Jesus was free moving around while the leper was not free but living apart from the people. But after Jesus healed the leper, the leper became free to move around and go into meetings with people, while the scripture says that “Jesus could no longer go openly into any town but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived”. Jesus gave the leper his own freedom to move around and took the leper’s own isolation. This is who God is to us. This is what God does for us. He takes away our shame to himself and gives us his glory (Ex 36:26b; Is 61:10; Lk 1:25; 1 Pet 2:24). Christ always wants to assume upon himself your disease, your shame, your sins, your corruption. But he needs you to come forward and surrender yourself to him. He needs you to say only one thing: “Lord, does it not disturb you, I, the product of your hand and love, am perishing?” (Mk 4:38).
Again, we must also learn from the leper who when he got healed, did not go in feasting, rather he allowed himself to be an ardent preacher of God’s mercy and kindness (Mk 1:45). As Jesus could no longer go into towns openly preaching the Goodnews of God’s mercy, the man whom he has saved took up the mission of Christ, proclaiming God’s mercy and kindness freely among the people. Because the leper received something only Jesus could do for him, he gave himself to the mission of Christ. Does the Bible not say that he who receives greater things, loves greatly? (cf Lk 7:41-43,47). Let our actions and words always aim at spreading the greatness of God in our lives.
As St. Paul tells us today, Christ saves us not for us to continue to live in fear and isolation but that whatever we eat, drink or do, it may be to the glory of God. Christ comes to our help so that we may also come to others’ help, being a good model to one another. Christ saves us that we may be free to speak of his name and his mercy to everyone, in every place and at every moment of our lives.
Fr. Nnamah Henry Chukwuezugo
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri.