February 14^th 2021.  Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ 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.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . The prescriptions of the first reading reveal the lonely existence of the leper, who must stay away from the community. Many have experienced such loneliness in this time of pandemic! In the Gospel, the leper asks Jesus to heal him and Our Lord does so. Then Jesus tells the man very sternly not to speak to anyone but to carry out the series of instructions stipulated by the Law. As we discover, the man is disobedient and proclaims the healing abroad to such an extent that Jesus cannot even enter the town and must remain in deserted areas. But why did Jesus warn the leper in such a severe manner? This prescription of silence from Jesus is referred to as the “messianic secret”: in other words, Jesus wishes to disclose his identity to the world only gradually, until he makes the full revelation during the trial before his crucifixion. In our times, there is the tendency to reveal everything immediately. Social media is full of the most banal and superficial “news”. Every sort of trivia is communicated and expressed. All of this is the result of a lack of an authentic interior life. To be healed and not to understand the meaning of being healed is almost worse than not being healed at all. Not everything is to be shared! The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when we speak with our heavenly Father then we should enter into our room and speak to him in secret. Many people never manage to do anything important or significant because they do not have this interior life. To do great things we must have an inner depth and awareness. We must learn to keep the sacred silence of Christ. The indiscretion of this leper excludes him from a true relationship with Christ. In our world of over-communication, we end up living on an instinctive, superficial level. We must learn to live the entire experience that this Gospel is calling us to. First, we must become aware of our loneliness and isolation, as this leper did. Second, we must kneel before Christ as he did and experience the Lord’s transforming compassion. Third, we must learn to be silent and enter into deep union with the Lord, otherwise we strip our relationship with Christ of its intimacy, uniqueness and greatness. Yes, the Christian must speak out, but with love, not superficially and according to impulse. We must announce the Gospel with love, but having first experienced love in the silence of our hearts. May the Lord allow us to spend time in the desert with him, to experience with him the convalescence of love, so that we learn the capacity to love profoundly and spiritually. Then, coming from the love of Christ and according the love of Christ, we can say the right thing at the right moment with discernment.

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

The first reading gives the Old Testament regulations regarding leprosy. The leper was basically excluded from society

The first reading provides the perfect introduction to the Gospel and gives the regulations that are to be followed by those suffering from leprosy. Because it was such a contagious disease, the leper had to show concrete signs that he had the condition, such as torn clothes. He had to shout, “Unclean! Unclean!” This made other people keep their distance. The leper, in fact, was required to remain on his own apart from the rest of society.

The leper appeals to the will of Jesus. What is God’s will for us? That we be healed in the fullest sense of the word!

In the Gospel, a leper approaches Jesus and says, “If you wish, you can cure me”. This man appeals to the will of Jesus. What is the will of God for us? When we pray, “Thy will be done!” we are speaking of that which God truly wants. Is what God wants something that has little regard for us? Or is the will of God totally bound up with his care for us? What God wants is that we are healthy, whole, and full of life! He wishes us to be clean and pure. When he sees the leper, he is moved to compassion. Our term for “compassion” derives from an expression that means “to suffer in solidarity with another”. But the Greek word for compassion in the original text of this Gospel means to be dramatically moved interiorly. Jesus is profoundly affected by his desire to heal this man. God, at the depths of his being, wants humanity to be happy.

The difference between being sick and being healed is not simply the absence of disease. We must live a healthy life. When God gives us a grace, we mustn’t just take it, end of story. This grace is not just an event in itself, but must be nurtured by us so that it becomes the beginning of a new way of life.

Jesus touches the man, even though he is a leper and the rules did not permit the touching of lepers. “Of course I want to!” Jesus says, “Be purified!” This is the will of God – that we be purified. The leprosy disappears, but Jesus then gives him some instructions that concern his convalescence. What does it mean to be healed? Does it mean to be simply without leprosy? Or does it mean to begin to possess a new state of existence that consists in living a life without leprosy? Many people ask for healings and graces. But graces are not simply received, they must also be possessed. The difference between being sick or healed is not solely the absence of illness. Being healthy involves living a healthy life with healthy attitudes. Otherwise a person cannot remain healthy for long. Jesus tells the man to go to the priest and to make the offerings prescribed by the Law. In other words, the healing has not finished here. He must now begin the process of living a spiritual life. Similarly, we should not simply “obtain” graces unthinkingly. When we return to our seat from Communion, do we start chattering about silly things with our neighbour? Do we spend even a moment contemplating what we have received? Do we give this grace a container in which it can be possessed for at least a moment?

When we receive grace, do we assimilate it and nurture it? Or do we use it frivolously and stupidly?

Jesus wants this man who has been freed from leprosy to remain silent about his healing and go through a process by which he can assimilate the gift that he has received, but he does not do so. The first reading tells us that the leper is someone who must remain excluded from society. We do not know how long the man in the Gospel had been ill, but it may have been a significant time, and during all that period he would not have been able to speak to anyone. So, instead of taking the time to possess his healing, he immediately exploits his new-found permission to speak with others. And how he speaks! He speaks with everyone and this means that Jesus is unable to enter the town. It is a curious fact: before the healing the man was expected to remain in desert places; after the healing it is Jesus himself who must remain in the desert because of the fuss that this event causes. How Jesus takes upon himself our illnesses, the consequences of our condition, and also of our stupidity! In our churches and parishes we receive innumerable graces, but it is an undisputable fact that we often manage these graces with frivolity and stupidity. We receive new and wonderful gifts, but we assimilate them according to the habits and attitudes of the “old man”. The leper in the Gospel has been given the gift of being restored to human society, but he uses this gift impulsively and reactively. His previous condition of being not allowed to speak conditions his response to being healed.

Being purified by God is not a once-off event. It is the beginning of a process of living a healthy and beautiful life. God wants us to possess the graces that he gives us and bring them forward, nurturing them into a way of life.

This Gospel tells us of the desire of God to heal us and purify us. But it also relates the need for each one of us to possess the graces we have been given and nurture them. We must not be content with the bare reception of the grace itself! This is only half of the real picture! God does not want us simply to escape from some vice, anguish, suffering or illness. He wants us to begin the process of living a life that is healthy, beautiful and pure in the fullest sense of the world. Becoming purified is not a once-off event. It is the beginning of a process that never ends. For all of our lives we must take possession of what is healthy, holy and what really counts.