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Our Sunday Reflection - February 11, 2024
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The leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Mark 1: 40-45
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Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
As we approach Ash Wednesday and the season of repentance and penitence, we hear how Jesus responded to a man who was considered unclean, both physically and spiritually. Over the following forty days, we will approach our Lord as sinners, in need of forgiveness, in need of being “made clean.” May Jesus’ response to the leper in today’s Gospel assure us of his love and mercy for us despite our failings, despite our sinfulness.Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
In ancient times, when people contracted leprosy they were immediately excluded from the community, barred from contact with anyone else. But Jesus changed all that when a single leper came to him. Not only did he heal him, he did so by reaching out and touching him, breaking down the barrier between healthy and sick, between “clean” and “unclean.” As Jesus did, so did Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote that he became an imitator of Christ. May the words we hear today inspire us to be imitators of Christ as well, breaking down barriers and reaching out to those who have been excluded.Reflections
- The strictures announced in the first reading were sensible for their time, for even then people realized that the skin disease they referred to as leprosy was quite contagious. If a person with symptoms ate, socialized, and lived with others, the whole community was at risk. Because the scabs and sores were both obvious and unsightly, people concluded that those with the disease were being punished by God. Therefore, they must be sinful and impure. Between contagion and impurity, they were best kept outside the community. Because they were being punished by God (or so they believed), only God could heal them.
- This brings us to the leper in today’s Gospel. The leper recognized Jesus for more than a healer, for a healer could only cure an illness. The leper, recall, specifically asked to be made clean. He wanted God’s punishment to be removed. He wanted the barrier between him and the community to be removed. Jesus removed that barrier the moment he touched him, bridging the gap between community and outcast, even before healing him. In touching the man, Jesus would have been considered to have made himself impure. But far from making himself less than whole, he is making the community whole by restoring the leper to it.
- Jesus challenges us to do the same, to break down the barriers that keep us apart, that keep some excluded from the community. He challenges us to be unafraid of reaching out to those whom we feel uncomfortable coming in contact with. Paul called upon the Corinthians to imitate him, as he imitates Christ. Though he was Jewish, Paul reached out to Gentiles from Jerusalem to the ends of the known world, bringing all of them into this new religion as full members. This is the inclusivity we are called to imitate in our families, our communities, our nation, and our world.
Question of the Week
Who can I reach out to in order to help make my family/community/world whole? How can I go about doing so?
-from Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, February 11, 2024
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, February 11, 2024
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Offerings
The Sunday offerings are a portion of our blessings that we give to God (Church) in gratitude to what God has done for us...ONLINE GIVING OPTIONS -
Reflections on the readings
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