Cycle B - Year II:  

11 February 2024: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 10:31--11:1

Gospel:  Please read  Mark 1:40-45 

The Lord can make us clean!

The sick and the impaired are among the helpless of society. Christian charity demands that we care and help them. In practical sense, it is better that we care and serve them than ourselves in their situation. Healing of the sick is one of the most popular in our Lord Jesus' public ministry, as we will hear in today's Gospel incident.

We continue to read about the beginning of our Lord's public ministry. The Gospel proclamation this Sunday tells us a moving story of healing of the leper who "kneeling down begged Jesus and said: 'If you wish, you can heal me.' "  (Mk 1:40)

As a brief backgrounder, lepers were outcasts of society in Jesus' time. Consider a leper, and how leprosy gradually eats away at the body, how it has no cure, and how it makes a man unclean for Temple worship. The Jewish Law forbade anyone from touching or even getting near a leper.

Yet, Jesus did the unexpected because He was moved with  pity. He stretched out His hand, touched the leper, and granted the man healing. Jesus demonstrates  the personal love, compassion, and tenderness of God in His physical touch of the sick man avoided by society. Our Lord met the man's misery with compassion and tender kindness. By physically touching the "untouchable" leper, Jesus communicated the love and mercy of God very powerfully in a sign that spoke more eloquently than words.

Today's healing incident is another testimony that Jesus indeed is the One to come. For it was written that when the Messiah comes, "the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor". (Mt 11:5) The physical healing manifests Jesus' power over the natural world, and displays Jesus' divine authority.

As we reflect deeper on the Gospel story, there is an intriguing parallel between leprosy and sin. Because both render us unfit for worship. We can see leprosy as an apt image of sin because sin destroys the soul like leprosy destroys the body.

Do we seek the Lord with expectant faith to cleanse us of our sins, like the leper in the Gospel story? Remember that no one who sought Jesus out was refused His help. Even the "untouchable" and the outcasts of Jewish society found help in our Lord. For Jesus is always ready to show us His mercy and to free us from whatever makes us unclean.

But also, do we approach the "untouchable" and outcasts in our present society, especially those we find difficult to love? Do we offer them mercy and love, like Jesus did to the leper? Or do we avoid them totally?

In our time Jesus needs our words and actions, our hands and our hearts, to continue to reach out to the lonely, to alleviate the pain, to bridge the gap that separates people. Let us follow the Lord's example of mercy and compassion with the leper, and the rest of our brethren who need our love and care.

Today's Gospel is a story of healing and touching. The leper knew what he wanted and believed that Jesus had the power to grant it. He came in humility, begging from a kneeling position. So Jesus met him with a compassionate response.

Lord, we come to You in our need, with our desire, and with total confidence in You to meet our needs, and to heal our wounds and cleanse us from our sins.

The Church also celebrates World Day of the Sick. Let us include in our Mass intentions all those suffering from sickness around the world that the Lord be merciful and grant them physical and spiritual healing. 

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!