6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

JESUS CAME TO CLEANSE US

The usual way of understanding the gospel is ‘There are lepers even today in some parts of the world. And there are many people whom we treat others as lepers. People who are social outcastes. Jesus was welcoming and inclusive to the leper and so we need to be welcoming and inclusive to the so called lepers or social outcastes of our society.’ Wonderful to hear in itself. But often I wondered whether it is just this that Jesus meant when he did this miracle or is there any other profound meaning to this action of Jesus. Let us reflect and see.

For the Jews of Jesus’ time Leprosy is something more than a disease. Every Pharisees or traditional Jew in Biblical times was to thank God that they were not born in any of the four following categories, and they prayed :- “I thank you God that I was not born a Gentile (a foreigner) a slave, a ‘leper’. The reason is that they believed that, God: Yahweh or Jehovah had placed a “curse” on these four groups of people.

Particularly leprosy was always associated with sin and curse. If we read the book of Numbers, there we read about Miriam who rebelled against Moses and sinned. And she was struck down with leprosy. Her body becoming as white as snow. And she was shut out of the community for she defiled herself with sin. It was a curse given by God for her sin. And in the II book of Chronicles Chapter 26 King Uzziah who again rebelled against God and his priest was struck down with leprosy and he left the temple to live and die in isolation. So leprosy, more than any other disease of biblical times was considered as a curse from God for one’s sin. Any person who is in sin is rendered unworthy of enjoying the company of God. So they are considered ritually unclean. So they were isolated from the community of worship or the house of God. Compare it with the first sin or the sin of our first parents. Once they sinned, they became unworthy to remain in the garden of Eden. They were excluded from it. That is what sin does to a person. It disfigures their soul, it defiles them and they become unworthy to live in the presence of God and offer true worship. This is what is symbolised in the case of leprosy. They become impure, defiled and disfigured in body rightly portraying what happens to the soul when a person sins.

Now Jesus the Messiah declared himself to be the physician. He said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” and added “I came not for the righteous but for sinners.” That was his mission. He reached out to sinners and the sick. He told them “your sins are forgiven.” Through all his healings he was actually trying to show to us what was his actual mission. The mission of restoring the broken relationship or communion with God and neighbour. Let us see the miracle in the gospel and let us try to understand his mission in the light of this. There is the leper or sinner approaching him, and questions his willingness. Jesus affirms that his will is to save many like him. “Of course I will,”He says. He extends his hands as extended his hand to many sinners like Mathew, Zaccheaus and many more. He touches him as he touched the lives of many and heals him as he heals many even today through the sacrament of confession.

And most importantly he asks him to go into the community; “you no longer belong to the ‘outside’ of the community but ‘inside.’” As prodigal son is accepted into the house, here he is accepted into the house of the community of believers and more than that into the house of God. He says “go to the temple show yourself to the priests who worship. Join them. You are made worthy to offer that true worship. Go.” Is it not this that happens to each one of us when we approach the sacrament of confession. Don’t we say “Lord, I am a sinner, forgive me or cleanse me. Does he not forgive you and cleanse you with his precious blood which he shed for us on the cross through the words of absolution by the priest. Then are we not made worthy to offer that perfect sacrifice of his body and blood in the holy mass along with the priest.

This is what he signified through the healing of the leper. Jews considered that Leprosy is incurable like many sins of ours. But Jesus showed that nothing is incurable. Nothing is impossible for God. People thought that Leprosy was a curse from God for sins. And Jesus showed that he had come to take away that curse of sin. How did he do it? I just want to point out to the last lines of today’s gospel. “He could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived.”

Now this is where a leper, a sinner, someone cursed by God is suppose to live. That is supposed to be the fate of a sinner. A life in isolation leading to death. For wages of sin is death. But Jesus is found to be taking the place of the sinner whereas the sinner is made to take his place in the temple. This signified what he was going to do to save the sinners. He is going to accept their fate. He is going to die for them. So that he or they or we can have a life of union with God. That is what Jesus came to do and that is what Jesus does to us even today. Let us rejoice in this saving work of Christ. Amen.

​Fr. Showreelu Simham