Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for February 12, 2006
Liturgical Year B-Cycle II
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. John Carney
Topic:  The effects of sin in our life
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Reading I
Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants. If the man is leprous and unclean, the priest shall declare him unclean by reason of the sore on his head.

“The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”

Reading II
1 Cor 10:31--11:1
Brothers and sisters, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or  the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Gospel
Mk 1: 40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,  touched him, and said to him,  “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest  and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
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Let me just say a few short words on the scripture readings today. Occasionally, someone will come up to me and say, “I’m going to read the Bible from cover to cover”, and I discourage them from doing it that way because there are some books in the Bible that are more important than others.  The Bible is not a book that starts with Chapter One and ends with Chapter 72.  It is, of course, a library of books.  I think that many a well-meaning Christian had started reading the Bible from cover to cover and got stuck in Leviticus, as we heard from today.  Leviticus was one of the books of the law. It was the book in which the detail aspects of the law were prescribed to the people and it was necessary.   

The Hebrew people, and later the Jewish people, had no OSHA, USDA, or FDA.  They didn’t have these organizations to ensure that what they ate and drank were clean, etc.  In Leviticus, God tells his people how to live, how to eat, how to drink.  He talks about what foods to eat, what to avoid, how to care for the dishes and bowls they used, how to wash correctly, how to handle the dead. There's also instructions about leprosy, which was quite prevalent at the time.
 
The problem, of course, is that the laws tended, by their nature, to exclude people.  They divided the people into groups, categories and even created a caste of untouchables--the lepers.  The point in fact, lepers were required to live apart from the community.  They were required to dress in a certain way, in a very disheveled way and if there was a non-leper in the area they would have to cry out, “Unclean!  Unclean!” so that they could be avoided. 

Jesus simply could not abide that exclusion of people that he loved.  In the Gospel, we see the leper, first of all, break the law in terms of approaching Jesus close enough to be touched.  Jesus, in turn, not only heals him but he actually touches this unclean person. “Moved with pity,“ the scripture says, “he stretched out his hand and touched him.”  He didn’t have to touch him to cure him.  He could have willed it from afar.  He decided to touch him because He couldn’t resist touching him, unclean as he was, because of His love for the leper. 
 
St. Paul has a similar message today.  He tells us to respect other cultures, other religions.  He tells us not to seek our own benefit but the benefit of the other.  That’s the very definition of love.  He says, “Give offense to no person.”  Finally, he sums it up by saying, “Imitate Christ as I do." If we are to be Christians, we must follow the guidance of 1 John 4: 20-21.
If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God  whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
 
These scriptures can be seen on a deeper level, a level that affects each one of us personally.  The Jews, many of them, did not believe in the afterlife. Even those who did, thought that this life, how we lived this life, was an indication of God’s pleasure or displeasure with us.  The hand that you’ve been dealt indicated if God favored you or not.  Someone who was sick and ill or poor, indicated that God was displeased.  Somehow, the outward condition of the person reflected their inward condition as well.  You could say that leprosy was to the body as sin is to the soul.  I think that analogy is accurate. Sin does to the soul what leprosy does to the body.  It makes us outcasts.  It alienates us from God.  You know that.  I know it.  We are all sinners here.  We have that in common and we know the effects of sin in our life.  If you can look back on your life and remember a time when you were in sin as a regular basis of how you lived, you were miserable, weren’t you?  You don’t have to say that in public.  I’ll answer for all of us.  “Yes, I was!”  That is because you’re alienated from God, you’re alienated from other people, especially those you’re close to. Eventually, you’re alienated from yourself.  That’s what sin does.
 
Like leprosy, if not treated, sin will kill.  Except that type of death is eternal.  But Jesus, as he touched the leper, because He couldn’t resist touching the unclean person, touches us as well in His reconciliation.  He sees the sin, which is repulsive to him, and yet, in spite of that, He embraces you and me and heals us. 
 
As He does to us, we are to each other.