By
Charles Muchiri
Sunday,
February 12, 2012
Liturgical
year B, Cycle II
Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings
for Mass
First
reading: Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46
Responsorial
Psalms: Psalms 32: 1-2, 5, 11
Second
reading: First Corinthians 10: 31-11: 1
Gospel:
Mark 1: 40-45
 |
| Christ Reaches out |
During
the times of Moses and Aaron, the lepers were ostracized; discriminated
against, stigmatized, cut off from the society.
Those
with such a condition were supposed to be brought to the priest – not for the
purposes of being prayed for – but so that the priest may declare them unclean!
Isn’t that just the worst to expect from the society on the part of the lepers?
Once
this happens, these lepers would retreat to some kind of a societal exile, and
anytime they came close to normal looking people, they had to cry out,
'Unclean, unclean!'
Fast-track
to the Gospel of the day: Christ is way much beyond Aaron of the old; He is way
much beyond any other priest of the times of Moses; He is God.
Yet,
when a leper approaches Him, He does not hesitate to associate Himself with a
man who would have been otherwise labeled as unclean. He heals him. And in
order to heal Him, He opts to stretch up His hand and touch Him. He does not
see this man’s leprosy as something that might contaminate.
Rather,
he reaches out.
Now,
isn’t it interesting just how this leper approaches Jesus? "If you wish, you can make me
clean." (Mark 1: 40)
These
are words that are coming out of a mouth of a man who has faced the end of his
being. He has reached a point where there is nothing much more beyond, for him
to hope about.
If
you wish, you can make me clean. Have you ever been in a point where you feel
like you have hit the end? That there is nothing else that now matters? That,
like the leper, the very God who created you can now do as He wishes?
That
is the very moment where Christ came in, for this leper; and this is the very
moment that Christ will come to you, at a point when your disposition is as
receptive to the wish, to the will of God.
One
other beautiful lesson from the experience of this leper’s contact with Christ;
the moment he experiences healing, the moment – by extension - he experiences Christ,
there is no amount of warning that would deter him from proclaiming about this
Christ who had healed him!
“The
man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report
abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained
outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere. “(Mark
1: 45)
After
we have experienced Christ, are we proclaiming about our experience with Him,
so much such that there isn’t any town – the residential ‘towns’ where we stay;
the ‘towns’ that are our working places; the ‘towns’ that are our schools - that Christ isn’t well known?
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this writer on Twitter @muchirimuchoki/
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