Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Lev 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45]"The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp." [Leviticus] A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he [Jesus] stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.."
After reading the passage from Leviticus, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how COVID-19 has impacted our lives. It is not just a matter of the illness itself, which can be minimal in some and lethal in others, but the whole status of the individual in society! In Jesus' day, "leprosy" could include any number of skin ailments and not just Hansen's disease, the classic example. Life was hard for those unfortunate to be stricken with Hansen's disease right on into the 20th century. My own home state of Louisiana was host to one of the few "leper colonies" in the U.S.A. at Carville, LA.
The COVID-19 pandemic gives us a small taste of the isolation and exposure protocols that have made our lives miserable for the past year or so. "Social distancing" and prohibitions against gatherings have impacted our faith life with actual dispensation from Sunday worship!! The celebrations of ordinary sacramental life have become perilous with baptisms, weddings and funerals being limited in attendance. The everyday requirement to wear masks in public has given rise to tensions between neighbors and in communities.
All of this can give us plenty to consider in the story of Jesus and the leper today. What Jesus does for the man is more than cure him. Jesus restores him to his family and community. The leper no longer has to cry, "Unclean, unclean!" and live apart from the community in a state of poverty. What we may need to consider as well is not simply an illness that no one wants to have, but what one might call "social leprosy" which we create with our fears and prejudices in regard to individuals or whole classes of individuals. Jesus was not afraid to be declared "unclean" by touching the leper. How brave are we to cross the lines of prejudice to reach out to those whom "society" has declared to be "leprous." If our goal is to be "imitators of Christ," as St. Paul writes in today's second scripture, we are challenged to "heal" the social lepers who reach out to us, and also understand what might lead us to create such a state for anyone! AMEN