Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
Leviticus 13:1–2, 44–46
Psalm 32:1–2, 5, 11
1 Corinthians 10:31—11:1
Mark 1:40–45
In today’s Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist puts on our lips a prayer that is helpful in times of difficulty: “I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.” The readings of the day point to the human experience of illness, in particular the kinds of disease that isolate us from one another. Moses gives instruction on how to keep the community of Israel pure in the face of leprosy. Jesus, in the Gospel, provides a sign that God intends to heal all that holds us back from a living relationship with Him and with His People. Worship is acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God. Christ offers us healing so that we are free to worship.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians to “do everything for the glory of God.” He points out his own example as a way to live in order to call others into a real relationship with God in Christ. “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.”
Often, our tendency is to cry out, “Why me?” This cry keeps us focused on ourselves and our own sense of comfort. It is a natural reaction to things that happen to us that are contrary to our own desires. Illness often feeds into this tendency in us. We turn inward and are caught up in our own plight. The action of grace can move us beyond this tendency.
Two incredible moments presented in the Gospel must be noted. Mark describes the scene of Jesus’ encounter with a leper very simply: “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 first moment is the leper’s daring to address Jesus and making the extraordinary claim. It is as if he is telling Jesus about His own power to heal. This is an act of pure faith.
The second moment is Jesus’ response. First, He is moved with pity, then He touches the leper. It was made perfectly clear in the Law that this was not to be done. To touch a leper was to be made ritually unclean, impure, and so, the one who did such a thing could not go to worship. By this touch, Jesus reverses the flow of impurity. The One Who is all pure wills to make the leper clean and He does so.
The charge not to tell anyone about what happened is ignored, and so Jesus must take the leper’s place, dwelling outside the community, in deserted places. He takes upon Himself the demands of the Law for isolation.
Nonetheless, something new occurs in the community that has for so long been accustomed to avoid lepers at all cost: “People kept coming to him from everywhere.” Healing is received. Jesus takes the place of the one formerly ill with the gravest of diseases, and others come to seek healing for themselves. They are “from everywhere.”
This week, we will enter into a desert time. Lent invites us to allow the grace of God to enter into our hearts. The practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving of this season are intended to open us to the power of the touch of the Savior. We join the leper with the invitation to Jesus: “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
