6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Mark 1: 40-45

40 A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: 'If you want to,' he said, 'you can cure me.'

41 Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. 'Of course I want to!' he said. 'Be cured!''

42 And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured.

43 Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him,

44 'Mind you say nothing to any­ one, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.'

45 The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.

Meditation

Today's passage is in three sections :

•  verses 40-41: Jesus heals a leper;

•  verses 42-45a: Jesus protects his identity;

•  verse 45b: the people still come to him.

As with last week's passage, we are free to focus on one section alone or to see the three sections as a unit, one moving into the other.

First Section

The healing of lepers is a feature of Jesus' ministry - appro­ priately, since leprosy is a powerful symbol of the alienation which he came to free humanity from. In meditating on this pas­ sage, we are free to identify the particular form of leprosy we have experienced. We will then become freer to decide for our­selves who we want to identify with :

•  the leper, the one who has been healed from uncleanness;

•  Jesus, the one who brings the marginalised into the commu­ nity. The story is told imaginatively and every detail can touch us :

•  the helplessness of the leper, 'pleading on his knees';

•  the pathetic 'if you want to' - the leper dares not put too much hope even in the one he knows can cure him;

•  the immediate healing once he is touched. Then there is the greatness of Jesus

•  entering into the pain of the man ('feeling sorry for him,' as the Jerusalem Bible translation has it, does not convey the compassion for the man that Jesus feels in his heart);

•  Jesus 'stretching out' his hand, indicating that he must reach far out from where he is at present in order to meet the leper where he is;

•  once the man has been touched the healing is immediate.

Second section

This section introduces the theme of what scholars have termed 'the messianic secret' - Jesus' vain attempt to conceal his identity until the time is ripe. This messianic secret is related in all three synoptic gospels, but it is stressed most strongly in St Mark. Scholars have done extensive research to determine what was Jesus' motive for insisting on the messianic secret. In lectio divina, however, our approach is to start from our human experi­ence. We ask ourselves questions like :

•  what in our experience corresponds to the messianic secret?

•  what does our experience teach us about why Jesus insisted on the messianic secret?

•  how does the concept of the messianic secret help us to un­ derstand ourselves and the way we must live out our voca­ tion in the world?

This approach from experience reveals that all of us human beings have to work out for ourselves what is our God-given mission in the world, what we have to offer others that no one can do in our name. Like Jesus, we will find that we must strug­ gle to preserve our 'messianic secret'. We do not allow others to define our mission to them.

Our passage, if taken as a unit, brings out that those whom we have helped and who admire us are among the 'others' we must resist. Our success with them can be an obstacle to our re­ maining faithful to our personal vision. They remind us that we have touched them but we learn from gospel passages like this one that it was a painful struggle for Jesus, as it is for us.

Third Section

Leaders who speak from their inner truth are very pre­ cious. Nowadays many leaders are content to make conventional statements - 'this is what I am about'. What St Mark says of Jesus will be true of all those to whom we relate - we may be un­ popular to them; it will seem very hard for them to reach us. These things don't matter, however, - 'even so, people from all around will come to us.'

This must also be what attracts people to the church. It is not our business to make ourselves attractive. All the church's efforts must be devoted to being true to its vision. Often in history, the church has gone along with the values of the world. There were times when we accepted slavery, supported the imperialist ideology of the colonial powers, allowed ourselves to be protected by the armies of states.

We thank God that in many parts of the world, in recent cent­uries, the church has learned to keep its distance from these pop­ ular sayings - like Jesus we must learn to 'stay outside where nobody lives.'

Prayer 

'People are made people through other people.'
African proverb

Lord, we remember a time when we felt unclean:

•  we were ashamed of our sexuality;

•  we did something which made us want to hide ourselves;

•  we let down our fellow workers or our team;

•  we deceived someone who trusted us;

•  we betrayed the ideals of a social movement we belonged to.

Like the lepers in Jesus' day,

•  we felt isolated, unclean, with no sense of self-worth;

•  we didn't want to mix with friends or family.

Then one day we felt able to come to someone who we felt could bring us healing :

one of our parents, a friend or neighbour, a priest or other member of our church community.

We remember how we felt at that moment, pleading on our knees, not literally perhaps, but our body language showed how nervous and insecure we were - like the leper - hopeful and yet so unsure of ourselves that even though we trusted the person, something within us still whispered, 'If you want to ...'

We thank you for the compassion of that Jesus person, laughing off our doubts and saying, 'Of course I want to!' stretching out a hand across the wide expanse which separated us, so that we felt touched and held.

There was no more to say then, the warmth in that touch said, 'Be cured!' and at once we were cured of our feelings of uncleanness, and we felt able to show ourselves to the community.

Lord, we think today of societies torn apart by ancient feuds, so that the different communities look on each other as lepers:

•  dissenters and those who accept the status quo in the United States and other prosperous countries

•  Israelis and Arabs in the Holy Land

•  Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka

•  warring factions in the Republic of the Congo .

We thank you for sending them people like Jesus who recognise in those of the opposing side human beings who beneath their hostility are really pleading to be accepted and to belong to the wider community.

Like Jesus with the leper, they assure these others that they want to work together with them, they are anxious to stretch out their hands across the centuries of violence and deeply entrenched barriers.

They touch them, and it seems that in an instant resentment, suspicion, inability to forgive and to trust are overcome.

'To have convincing authority we must share the journeys of people, enter their fears, be touched by their disappointments, their questions, their failures, their doubts.'
Timothy Radcliffe, former Master General of the Dominicans

Lord, as a church in the various communities that make up our state, we want to care for those who are neglected by the majority

•  those who are divorced and remarried;

•  members of the gay community;

•  those who belong to a lower class than ourselves;

•  members of a different culture or sub-culture.

Forgive us for wanting to care for them while standing aloof and feeling superior, so that we become angry when people are suspicious of us and wonder whether we really want to cure them.

We pray that our church may have Jesus' generosity of spirit which will allow us to understand how leprosy breeds suspicion, so that we will brush away their doubts and stretch our hands as far as we need to, until we can touch their pain and they will feel part of our community.

Lord, it is a long and painful struggle to remain true to ourselves, and we thank you that your Son Jesus underwent that struggle with us.

On the cross he remained faithful while the chief priests and elders taunted him, at other times too, he had to keep his distance from those who admired him, talked freely about his great deeds and told his story everywhere.

We pray that we may be stern like him in being faithful to our personal goals, like him refuse to go openly into any town and spend long periods in places where nobody lives.

Even so, people from all around will come to us, and we will then be able to relate with them from the truth of ourselves.

' When you become important, it is easy to fall from a true prophet into a false one.'
Jean Vanier

Lord, forgive us, your church, for the times when we have allowed ourselves to be defined by those whom we have helped:

•  the graduates of our schools;

•  those who have been cured at our hospitals;

•  the conquistadors and colonial governors with whom we collaborated.

Forgive us for feeling proud when they started talking about us freely and telling the story everywhere.

We thank you that in many countries of the world, your church took the decision to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and reach out to those whom society treats as lepers, even though this meant becoming isolated, no longer going openly into any town, staying outside where nobody lived.

A strange thing happened - even so, people from all around kept coming to her!