Openess to healing, 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

We continue with Jesus demonstrating (by his signs and deeds) that the reign of God in the world had begun. In Jesus, the Good News is preached, captives are set free, broken hearts and bodies are healed and demons are cast out.

And we see the dynamics of those receiving new life from Jesus being compelled to share this new life in witnessing to others the Good News that cannot be kept silent.

 

In the first reading we hear that the Levitical priests had the responsibility for the well-being of the people of God. They dealt with matters of impurity, both moral and ritual.

A moral impurity is adultery or murder and these are sinful acts.

 Ritual impurity is like the physicality of childbirth, the time of menstruation or the ins and outs of dietary laws, these are, of course, not sinful.

Leprosy is a ritual impurity.  The leper is not sinful but unclean and, so by no fault of his own, a person without a name, an outcast and removed from the fellowship of the community.

 

On the surface this was all about the physical health and well-being of the community.

It was their duty to quarantine those who could infect others.

But, ritual purity was also a reminder that God, in the Ark, was within their camp.

This closeness of God required communal purity; wholeness of body and community.

 

Of course, the notion purity implies impurity and everything in between, the good and the not so good, the broken and the unbroken, the hodgepodge of human lives.

 

In the second reading St Paul reminds us that those very messy human lives, all of it, what we do or not do with our body, mind, and spirit matters, everything we are or do brings us closer or further from God. It is our choice not his.

 

Paul says be aware, everything matters. Be intentional in what you do, do not sleepwalk through  your life.

He says whatever you do, even as mundane as eating and drinking, do for the glory of God.

Even what is impure, broken or sick begins to be purer, less broken, and healthier when we realize that it is the whole person that God loves and we begin to surrender what is not so good up to God to correct and make better, even perfect.

Then, in thanksgiving, we offer up this new, better life, to God in acts of charity and love.

 

Today's Gospel story is one of being made whole through faith. 

A leper, ritually impure, without home or community, comes and knees before Jesus. Think about the risk this man took coming to Jesus. The staring and ridicule, the fear and hatred that would surround him. 

He is not known by his name, but by his condition - the leper.

How desperately strong he must have been.

How much did he know about Jesus? Had he followed Jesus at some distance? Had he been in Capernaum when Jesus healed and drove out demons? Had others in the loose ring of  outcasts told him about Jesus? We don't know. 

What we are told is that in boldness and confidence (isn't this a sign of faith) this unclean man comes to Jesus and cries out

"If you wish, you can make me clean"

Clearly not a demand. Not a list of reasons why Jesus must act. This was a surrender to faith alone and a openness to be healed!

If you will it, Lord, it will be done.

 

Immediately, Jesus in a compassion, that heals and transforms lives, 

reaches out and touches the diseased body .  Think about this action the leper, a human being,  had not felt the touch of another person for; 10, 20, 30 years.  What must it felt like., that kind loving, healing touch.  Also, by touching the leper Jesus himself becomes ritually unclean.  To heal another puts himself outside the community, beyond the pale.

"I do will it, be made clean"

This is the power of love that breaks boundaries and transforms a life.

This is a sign that God is present. Even in the life of a leper.

 

Jesus sends the healed man off to show himself to the priests so they can proclaim him clean and he can re-enter the community.  The man is now whole in body by the healing of his wounds, in spirit by his encounter with Jesus, and now in fellowship by his re admittance to community. This is wholeness.

 

But Jesus first tells him, don’t tell anyone? It is like Jesus said what is done is done let the priests do their work and get on with your life.

But, of course, he cannot keep silent. Out of joy and gratitude for new life the new man  proclaims the good news that is Jesus.

 

The Joy of the Gospel always leads to witnessing Jesus is Lord and thanksgiving to God who saves and a heart felt desire to reach out in charity and service to others.

 

 The encounter of the leper and Jesus demonstrates we are both in need of healing and but we can also be agents of healing.

 

We are like the leper, sick and broken in so many differe