At the weekend Masses in most parishes where I preach, after the communion rite, the ministers to the home-bound, hospitalized and imprisoned are called forward. They are given a pyx containing one or more hosts. Some take communion to a needy family member or friend, while others require more hosts because they will be visiting a nursing home, a retirement community, or the local jail.
At the conclusion of Mass before they depart, these good people receive a blessing in front of the congregation. Usually the priest giving this blessing will speak to them a few words — words which the congregation can “overhear.”
Recently one priest told the four ministers to whom he had given the pyxes, “We are grateful to you for what you do in our name. Being sick or unable to get out to be with us, can cause a person to feel cut off from the world outside and from our parish community. In their loneliness they might feel forgotten, not only by the community, but even by God. You ministers are reminders to them that we remember and miss them. You take the presence of Jesus to them not only in the Eucharist, but in yourselves. Tell our brothers and sisters that we prayed for them today and will continue to do so. Also, share with them the Word of God you heard at our celebration.” (What this Dominican also heard was that they were being told to be preachers of the good news.) Then the priest blessed the ministers and sent them on their way in the name of the parish community.
In contrast to what I just described, our reading from Leviticus can sound harsh, a cruel practice from a primitive time. It was meant to apply to leprosy, but because of their lack of medical knowledge, any skin ailment or rash was called leprosy. Primitive people feared contracting leprosy since they lacked medications to treat it. So, as Leviticus puts it, a person perceived to have leprosy was told to, “dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”
The Israelites believed they were in relationship with their holy God. In that relationship they wanted to be holy themselves. For them holiness meant to be without blemish — physical or spiritual. So, they excluded from their community anyone they thought to be unclean. Such an exclusion had dire effects in ancient times. Physical survival was almost impossible without family and community support. Being excluded from the community then could be a death sentence.
The ostracization also meant lepers could not worship with the community. So, they not only were considered physically unclean, but spiritually blemished as well. They were like the walking dead. They felt far from people and probably far from God.
That’s the way some of our very sick or disabled can feel. I cherish the parish liturgies in which I witnessed the blessing and sending of those communion ministers. One way they bring Jesus to the sick is in the sacrament and another is in their own sacramental, Christ-presence. But, if you were to ask any of them about their experiences, they would say that they meet Jesus already there in those they visit — found where he always wanted to be found, among the poor, sick, imprisoned and outcasts. We know they are right because of gospel stories like today’s.
Rather than stepping back from the leper who approached him, Jesus felt pity for him and touched him. He bridged the gap between the clean and unclean, the “respectable” insiders and the “disrespectable” outsiders. When he did that, he acted with the authority of God. Who is this God Jesus reveals? It is the God of the outsider and needy; the God who reaches out to the sick and outcasts to make them whole and restore them back to their family and community.
In light of today’s gospel story we can ask ourselves today: how do we react towards the sick? How do we look upon those on the fringes of society? Whom do we label as “normal” or “abnormal?” Do we treat them equally? I hear in the current political debate derisive hints (sometimes not so subtle) about certain racial groups and those who are poor. It is suggested that they are “lazy,” “free-loaders,” “welfare cheats,” etc. We may have dealt with the medical problem of leprosy, but social and spiritual leprosy are still around. And our modern “lepers” are no less outcasts than the ones we read about in the Bible.
Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with pity” for the leper. The original Greek suggests a very deep emotion. The verb “splanchnizomai” means, “to have a gut reaction.” In other words, Jesus’ deep-down reaction spontaneously moved him to reach out to the leper. Another translation says Jesus was “moved to anger.” Jesus displayed passion for human suffering and for what causes it. The story invites us not to stay aloof or apart from human need — but urges us to get “angry” at what causes suffering in a person or people and then to do as Jesus did, “reach out,” and help alleviate it.
One recurring theme in Mark is the “messianic secret.” We meet it today as Jesus tells the cured man, “See that you tell no one anything, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” What could be clearer? But the man did speak about what happened to him. Even if he hadn’t, the testimony of his cure would have been proclaimed by his healed condition.
God has touched us through our baptism. We have been and continue to be, cleansed of our spiritual leprosy — sin. Sin separates us from the community and moves us to the edges. But how many times on our journey have we have approached Jesus, asked to be made clean and received forgiveness — then returned renewed back to the community?
Unlike the cured leper, we are called to proclaim what has happened to us in our baptismal encounter with Christ. Like those parish communion ministers we might go out to the sick and needy and remind them that they are not forgotten by our community. We could visit a prisoner or an inmate on death row — “lepers” in the eyes of many and cut off by society. We could volunteer in our parish or community to feed the growing numbers of poor and help the homeless find shelter. Think about the people in our community who are considered “lepers” in some way and then do as Jesus did, reach out to them.
In a couple of weeks we begin Lent. We may choose to give up sweets, smoking, wine etc. What to do with the money we save? “Reach out” to the nearest lepers and help them.
It’s quite refreshing to come across great content such as this. Continue the good work.