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Homily of the Sixth Sunday of OT, Year B
Homily of the Sixth Sunday of OT, Year B
One day Tolstoy, a famous Russian writer, was relaxing in a park near his home. There was a beggar with dirty clothes who came close and handed out his hat for money. The writer put his hand in his pocket looking for money, but unfortunately he did not have any with him that day. Then he looked at the beggar and said: “My brother, I am sorry, I don’t have my wallet with me today.” The beggar, instead of sad, smiled and said: “I don’t know how to thank you enough because you gave me a gift which is greater than money. That is: you did not insult or ignore me, but you respected me when you call me “your brother.” What do you think about that?
According to Moses’ law, lepers are unclean, so they have to isolate themselves from family and community until they become clean again.
It looked like the leper, in the gospel of Mark, did not give up his hope. He heard about Jesus and he believed that Jesus was the One he needed. In response to his faith, Jesus did an extraordinary thing that day: He did not only talk to the leper, but he touched him. When people tried to keep a distance from the lepers and sinners, Jesus came and touched them and healed them. Through this gospel, we may see who Jesus really is, and what he wants us to do with the poor, the sick, and even sinners.
Have you ever felt rejected by your loved ones or by this community of faith because of any reason? How did you overcome it? We have to learn from the leper who did not give up his faith in divine providence. In my experiences, when our friends or our loved ones want to abandon us, but Jesus does not stay away from us. He is here to wait for us.
When we have a mortal sin, we are spiritually leprous. We should not hesitate to come to the sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus knows that we are humans and we are weak. We make wrong decisions and mistakes many times, but he still loves us and wants us to come to him to get clean. The point is: “don’t get discouraged or despair when we have sins, but trust in God’s mercy to ask for forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation and change.”
On the opposite way, how do you interact with someone who is living contrary to the gospel? Will you exclude him/her from the church or from your circle of friends? Jesus does not want us to condemn or isolate anyone from our faith family, but he wants us to reach out and show love and hope to the sinners. Remember, no one is perfect, and no one is totally clean before God. But God is merciful and full of compassion. His arms are always open to embrace us when we come to him with a humble and contrite heart.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there was a significant exchange that happened here. The lepers became free and reconnected with his family and community of faith, but Jesus became isolated. He had to hide himself in the deserted place because he took on himself the unclean and the sins of the leper. Like Saint John the Baptist said: behold the Lamb God who takes the sins of the world. Yes, indeed, he took our sins to the cross for us to gain eternal life. Therefore we never lost our trust in Him, but we continue to trust in His mercy and love for us and for human kind. This is the message the modern world should hear.
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Stayton OR 97383
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