SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

SIXTH SUNDAYOF THE YEAR – B
(Lev 13:1-2, 45-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45)
Theme: Extending the embrace means to reach the heart of the other

Reflection

- We are here, on this sixth Sunday of liturgical year, in the open arms of our God in order to experience the warmth and the depth of his embrace and his affectionate hug. God extends his hug to each one of us with affection of love and compassion. His embracing effect reaches our heart and transforms it to be like him in our words and actions. This is the message that we have to learn and carry with us today. We have to learn to ‘have compassion’ and to ‘extend our hand’ and to ‘reach out’ to touch the very need of the person we meet.
- This message is a continuation of the theme of the Last Sunday. As we are in the liturgical cycle of the celebration of Mark’s gospel this year, even our weekly themes and reflections have to be in connection and have to be in cycle. One theme has to lead us to the other theme and one Sunday has to guide us to the other and it is only with the other that the first one finds its completion and realization. In this context we had last Sunday the theme that “we are the walking Gospel/mobile or moving Gospel” which means we have to talk we talk about the good news of God and while we do something we do it for the glory of God and good of the others. This theme leads us today into the theme of ‘reaching out to the heart of the other’. This is actually the effect of being ourselves a Gospel. We have the gospels in the bible and we read them; we may also write again another gospel; but above all the truth that ‘we are the gospel’. If the true Gospel is the proclaiming and performing of the love of God, we too are called to be this Gospel. Each one of us is and has to be ‘good news of love’ to the world. This is the Christian vocation that we are called for.
- Today, Jesus teaches us the authenticity of our gestures and their rightful and meaningful usage; we have to live what we do and we have to do what we say; if we extend our hands to help someone and if it has to be an authentic one, it has to reach not the only exterior result of the help but the transformation of the interior self and being. This is what happened in today’s gospel with and by the touch of Jesus, because Jesus did not cure the leper just outside or only on the appearance but he touched ‘the inner most being’ of the leper that ‘leper is no more a cursed one but blessed one’. This is the real meaning of ‘embracing’. The curse should be transformed into the blessing and the fear of sickness into the joy of total healing of the person. Are we really ready to extend this kind of embrace? Exactly this Jesus wants from us today and as his committed followers are we ready to give him what he wants?

First Reading:
The reality of the leper is to be ‘outside’ of ordinary living

- The first reading of today provides the words spoken by God to Moses about the leper’s condition. “The leper has to live alone and live outside of the camp” (v.46). The book of Job defines the leprosy as the “firstborn of the death” (18:13). This shows the seriousness and the gravity of the disease and for this reason the Rabbis used to treat the leper as a ‘dead man’ and if at all he is cured from this they consider him as the ‘risen from the dead’. This sickness of leprosy is thought to be the highest form of the physical impurity that a man may be affected with. For this reason that the priest has the duty of ‘examining and declaring’ that he is impure and unhealthy (v.2) and also of ‘sending him out’ of the community. In this way, the leper is:
o Deprived of his cult and participation in the sacrificial offerings
o Separated from the communion with God as though he is buried in the tomb.
o Disconnected from the daily interaction with the people, even his kith and kin.
- The life of the leper is made so terrible that he has cover his whole body with the sack cloth and whenever he wants to enter into the public he has to come making people alert about his entrance and he has to shout ‘I am impure’ and this is seen as the most disguising and disgusting moment of his life because he has declare himself ‘impure and unholy’ with shame and that makes him suffer terribly in his heart for the situation for which he is not guilty; this could also be an innocent suffering like that of Job. The moment still more serious for the whole life of a leper is to be ‘thrown out’ of the community and normal relationship with the people around him and he cannot bear the condition of being ‘maltreated’ by his own people.

Second Reading:
Do everything for the glory of God

- St. Paul who exhorted us last Sunday to make ourselves ‘all things for all’ for gaining all, today gives us the similar teaching. He is writing to the Corinthians who are still living a life of ‘idolatry’ and eating what is offered to the idols and thus profaning the Christian living. To answer the people of such sort and to answer their question of whether the food that is offered to the other pagan gods can be consumed by the Christians, Paul writes this passage.
- “Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do it for the glory of God” (v.31) is the answer of Paul. Once again he goes with the ‘spirit of the action’ than the ‘letter of the word’. Eating and drinking are the common acts of the daily life; but as Christians every act that we commit is always ‘linked’ with the rendering glory to God. Here lies the true message of the Christian living. Eating is not the matter that has to be considered or treated seriously, but while eating ‘what is your thought and how is your spirit’.
- In this way, Paul invites them to search not their own interests, in their ordinary acts, but strive for something above: that is the glory of God. Therefore, without giving lot of time and importance to these ‘unnecessary arguments’ of the food and drink, whether offered to pagan gods or not, the people of Corinth are encouraged by Paul, to look for the spirit that is working behind every action. Therefore, every moment of the Christian life is a ‘raising up’ the sacrifice of Glory to God.
- Our action should not be a cause of the scandal but it has to become ‘a moment of testimony’ of being all for all and it is for this, therefore, that Paul admonishes to make ourselves – as Christians – “to please everyone in everything” (v.33) by giving up our self motives and our interests and by giving importance to the others and to the needy and it is the ‘gesture of glorifying God’ and ‘action of saving the other from their false ideas’.
- ‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (11:1): another word of encouragement that Paul provides to the new followers of Jesus, the people of Corinth. It is indeed needful because as they have just entered into the Christian faith by coming out of the life of idolatry (worship of pagan gods) there is a chance of mixing up of the cults both either because of the ignorance of the true and new faith which is not yet deeper or because of the pressures from the other people who have not yet received the faith in Jesus and yet criticize and disturb those who just received faith. It is the most confusing situation of the life of the new Christians. At this juncture they need someone for their reference and for their imitation so that with his guidance they ‘embrace’ the true Christ and Christian life. Yes, here and for this spiritual encouragement that Paul tells these words: ‘to be imitators of him as he is of Christ’. From this we can understand two points:
o The first truth is that ‘the faith is nourished only (sometimes purely) by the imitation of the other’ and thus together reaching to the ‘destiny of faith’: this is true from the beginning of the salvation history: Jesus also asked the people to follow him so that they could enter into the kingdom of God and it is both – Jesus and the faithful – together walking towards life in God and in fact, for this reason that Jesus has made himself one of us, our brother and our neighbor. Not to be anymore above us (he can be above us because he is capable, but he prefers to be with men because it is his will, not compulsion), but to be with us, in us and for us so that we become his imitators and along with him we reach our God. It is in this sense that Paul has asked them to be his imitators. Every disciple of Jesus has to be the ‘icon of imitation’ to the people around and especially to the people entrusted to him.
o The second truth is that this imitation makes us ‘responsible’ for our own life and the life of those who follow us. It becomes a blessing if first of all we give good example of personal life and thus lead others to the faith. It can also become a great curse if we only ‘teach them to be’ without being ourselves the same. It will have its consequence as Jesus tells that ‘if we become stumbling block to the faith of others it is better for us to be thrown into the sea with the great stone tied to our neck’. Therefore, ‘being the icon of imitation’ makes us to be responsible and authentic in our own Christian life. We cannot anymore pretend to be the disciple of Jesus because it will only cause us the ‘terrible’ result for our false teaching and misleading of others. Paul is able to tell this way because he has ‘decided and radically offered’ himself to the cause of Jesus and thus he is authentic imitator of Christ. Being imitator of Christ he can call the people to be his imitators because ultimate and common imitation of both Paul and People is, ‘the imitation of Christ’ who in turn, is the imitation of God, the Father in the Spirit.

Gospel:
Jesus manifests himself to be the doctor of both the body and the soul

- Jesus re-brings the leper into the communion and communication: there are three principle moments in the Gospel:
o First moment: Interaction between Jesus and the leper with the gestures and with the words (vv. 40-42):
 we see here an interesting scene of gesture both from the part leper and Jesus: it is leper who comes first to Jesus; he keeps himself on the knees; he asks Jesus; therefore, we have three gestures from the leper: ‘coming’ – ‘kneeling’ – ‘begging’. The gestures that show the ‘total surrender of the leper in the person whom He meets’.
 Even Jesus before responding to his words makes few gestures: moved with pity, stretching the hand, touching him; three gestures from Jesus ‘having compassion’ – ‘reaching out hand’ – ‘touching’, show the ‘ultimate meaning of his being with the people’ as Immanuel, that is, ‘God with us’.
 we notice also the significant exchange of words between the leper and Jesus: leper as though he has already known Jesus, at least as though heard about Jesus, asks Jesus ‘if you want, you can make me clean’: this request of the leper, though seems to be little provocative on the one hand, is actually ‘the question of wanting’ more than healing; it shows also that the leper is seeming to ask Jesus directly: ‘leave aside healing because it is not the thing that I need so much; what I need is whether you want me or no; what I need is whether you consider me as a person or no; whether you can treat me important for you or no in the condition I am in which all have abandoned me and deprived me.
 In this way the leper expresses his want of being accepted rather than simple healing. ‘you can heal me’ is the total trust that the leper already has in Jesus; he would have easily and simply asks like ‘two blind men’: ‘Jesus, have mercy on us’; but here the question is not only simple cure but ‘acceptance and embracing of the person’ and this desire of being ‘noticed and treated wanted’ that made him ask Jesus, ‘If you want’. These words of the leper are the words of ‘complete trust’ for being ‘accepted first’ and then for being ‘healed’.
 Jesus too knows his thought and his desire and that is the reason why he does not simply say ‘be healed’ but he first says ‘I do want’; he knows that more than healing the leper wants to be touched and embraced; that he needs a hug which is missing for very many years outside the camp. Jesus embraces him not with a mere gesture of hugging but with the deeper compassion and pity for him and for his being ‘excluded’ from the ‘life’ of the human person. These words of Jesus are the ‘words of love and mercy’ that can hold everything in their arms.
o Second: the important thing is to respect and to follow the Law of Moses which is indeed the law of God (vv. 43-44):
 Jesus after healing the leper sends him to present himself to the priest and get certified that he is totally healed and it is according to the law of Moses (the first reading). Jesus, though being New Moses and New Law Giver, still respects the old Law that is given by Yahweh. In fact, he has come not to abolish the Old Law but to ‘perfect and fulfill it’. Though many misunderstand him to be the rejecter of the Law of Moses, here we can see one of the many examples in which Jesus respecting personally the Law of Moses and asks the people to follow it because it is given by Yahweh and because it is for their own well-being.
 Telling others is not the prior matter here but fulfilling the law as the testimony is the matter that has to take precedence. That’s why Jesus warns him and sends him away to show himself to the priest without telling this to anyone else (v.44). What is important is giving testimony of glory for the healing received by fulfilling the norms that are prescribed than just taking with the words.
o Third: the joy of being accepted cannot be hidden and cannot be held in secret (v. 45):
 In spite of Jesus severe instruction the leper goes out proclaiming and spreading out the news. It is true that the joy received with the ‘kind embrace’ is so powerful and so effective that no one can hide it or keeps oneself away from it. It is like an explosion. It breaks out from the bottom of the heart. Leper has experienced, not just a healing from the physical wounds and disfigure of the body, but the warmth of love of Jesus in whom he has placed his complete trust which has touched whole of his person. This is the joy that no one can hold it secret and so also the leper.
 Joy of being ‘readmission’ into the community and thus having the normal and relational life again is another motive for the lepers’ unhesitating proclamation and neglecting the warning of Jesus and it ‘may be with the overwhelming joy of forgetting the self’. This joy of the leper must have impressed also Jesus because of his non-stop proclamation which is in reality ‘the action of glorifying God for the great deeds that he has fulfilled for them’.
 In this way, the wounded leper has become healed testimony. In other words, the disguised and rejected leper has becomes the cheerful and joyful announcer of the good news that ‘God is with us’ and he has come to ‘embrace us’.

Conclusion:
Leprosy is the ‘deformation’ of the integrity and in this sense we are also lepers

- As we have seen till now from the first reading or from the gospel the reality of the leper is ‘to cover himself totally’, to announce himself to be impure, and to be excluded from the society and from the community: in a word, leper is the one who ‘stays outside’ the camp.
- If we draw some meaning for us today from the readings we can comprehend that we have still leprosy around us and in us though we boost of eradicating the roots of physical leprosy from our surroundings.
o Personally and physically, leper is the one who is outside of the camp of the beauty and the form of the body because he loses his ‘normal shape and health’, because he is impure; each person is created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God; the nature of the body of the person is in his image that the creator destined to him; but the leper, once he is thrown out of the is deprived of the image of God in him physically because he is rejected of the corporal needs like that of food, shelter and security.
o Socially and psychologically, leper is the one who is outside the camp of the dignity of human person because he is deprived and rejected by the society and more than that he is ‘excluded’ from the normal living; each person is created with the freedom and with the relationship; the leper is thrown out of this dignity of enjoying the freedom and rapport with others and thus he becomes socially and psychologically a leper.
o Spiritually, leper is the one who is outside the camp of the faith and religious practice because he is considered as ‘cursed’ by God and as ‘unworthy’ of offering the praise and thanksgiving with the community of believers; each person is created and called to be the ‘child of God’ and to be the ‘icon of glory’ in the world; the leper is thrown out of this ‘proper being of possession of God’ and thus loses his right to expression of faith and trust; and thus he becomes spiritually a leper and a dead man.
- Leprosy for our days is losing of ‘beauty and purity’ physically, deprivation of ‘dignity of freedom and relationship’ socially and rejection of being ‘glory of God’ spiritually; in a word, leprosy is the ‘deformation of the integrity of the human person’. If this is the true leprosy that is spreading now in the world and in our society we all become part of it and thus: we too have leprosy and lepers with us and often times ‘we are the lepers’.
- We need not fear this sickness which is although contagious because we have a savior before us and with us and only one gesture and one word is needed, in the manner of the leper of the Gospel:
o One gesture of ‘placing ourselves before him on the knees’ and
o One word of asking: “Jesus, if you want you can heal me”.
o Because this gesture and the word of ours is the “expression of our total trust in Him who can save us”.
- With this reflection of the readings today we learn three things that:
o God has extended his warm welcome and embrace to all because everyone is part of His salvific will and action.
o Jesus in person is the expression of God’s ultimate compassion and love to those who come to him ‘kneeling’ and ‘praying’.
o On our part, as good Christians, we have to ‘give glory’ to God in all that we do (second reading) by fulfilling the law of God (first reading) and by ‘proclaiming the mercy of God’ (Gospel).
- In summary: we have to ‘extend our warmth of embrace’ which is signified in ‘reaching out to the heart of the other/ to the core of the very being of the person’ as Jesus has reaching the heart of the leper by his kind gesture and loving word.