Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 29 2025

Bringing Outsiders In

These first days of Jesus’ ministry present him preaching, teaching, and healing to bring people to know that God is near. His message and his deeds bring people back to full life in the community. By casting out demons and curing the sick he restores to full humanity those suffering from possession and illness. Today we find Jesus confronting a condition that must have been even more excruciating—leprosy.

To be a leper was to be cut off from others in all ways. You were cast out of the community, isolated, doomed to live in deserted places, no longer part of the human family, unable to participate in any social events, and considered unfit to worship God. It was assumed that if you had leprosy, you had sinned in some way. Your life was summed up in the words the Law of Moses told you to cry out whenever anyone came near, “Unclean, unclean!”

For Jesus to touch a leper meant that in the eyes of others he also became unclean and unfit to associate and worship with others. Even so, when a leper asked for healing, Jesus was unequivocal in his reply: “I do will it. Be made clean.” It is easy to hear in his response the authority of the Son of God, set on giving glory to his Father. Yet Jesus, ever respectful of the law, sent the man to the priest, as commanded in the book of Leviticus. In Jesus, pity took precedence over the law, but did not abolish it.

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever been or seen anyone cut off from a family, a group, or even the community?
When St Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” how does that speak to your life in terms of Jesus’ healing the leper in the Gospel?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you came to bring us into deeper communion with the Father and one another. Give us the courage to reach out, as you did, to those in need of our compassion and help. Let us not be afraid of the opinions of others when we see that good can be done. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

Leprosy included a wide variety of chronic skin diseases. Those with skin ailments were deemed unclean and were banished from the community. The real tragedy of leprosy was less the physical discomfort than the social estrangement and the religious alienation that resulted. Probably because such social and religious alienation was so severe, it was believed that the condition was brought on by some kind of sin. When the conditions that made a person unclean no longer held, it was necessary for the person to undergo some rite of purification before being readmitted into the community. This explains why a priest was involved.

Paul argues that the gospel is demanding enough; people do not need to be burdened with obligations that are extraneous to its message. He insists that neither food laws nor the assertion of one’s freedom should be the governing principle in the lives of Christians. The glory of God and sensitivity to others should be the driving force. “Avoid giving offense” is the policy he advocates. The passage ends with a final admonition: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Paul indeed adapted himself to the needs of others, and he did this after the example of Christ. The Corinthians are exhorted to follow Paul, who followed Christ.

The man in the Gospel story was suffering from the kind of skin ailment referred to in the first reading. Despite his condition, he boldly approached Jesus and begged to be made clean. Jesus was moved with pity. He knew that if he touched an unclean man he would become ritually unclean as well. However, his touch actually healed the man and restored him to the state of ritual purity. Jesus then sent him off to the priest for verification of the healing. Once again, the news of his marvelous power causes him to choose the seclusion of solitary places rather than the press of the crowd and their misunderstanding of his mission.

Jan 24 2025

Transformed by the Touch of Jesus

Jesus speaks sparingly in Mark’s Gospel. He acts . . . quickly. We are not even yet out of the first chapter and he has called the disciples, rebuked demons, and healed Simon’s mother-in-law. Today, the wonder-worker of Galilee stretches out his hand to the leper and straightaway the leprosy leaves him. Little talking. Much doing.

We have many of Jesus’ words. Thus we pay close attention to what the Teacher said. But here in Mark, the process matters more than the words—the calling, the traveling, the exorcisms, the healings, the dying and the rising. This royal Messiah is a man of action. How can we understand the Christ as the early Marcan community saw him? Pay attention to the verbs.

Jesus touches the leper.

No Jew touches a leper. The diseased are unclean. The book of Leviticus makes very clear that a leper is set apart: no hug, no tap on the arm, no smoothing of the hair, and no rub of the back—no touching. The man may not have felt a human caress of any sort for years. He begs to be cleansed. And Jesus touches him.

What then? Does the man tremble from the warmth flowing from Jesus’ hand? Does a tingling fire awaken his nerves like the heat from a habanero pepper? Do his eyes water? Does his skin burst clean? What is it like to be instantly healed from leprosy?

We hear the words—words go in, words go out—we’ve heard them before; but can we imagine what it feels like to be touched by Jesus?

The saints depict the touch of God as a flaming arrow that burns the heart, an inner swelling of love. Augustine says that he was touched by God, and then burned for God’s peace.

Jesus touches the leper. How could he possibly stay silent?

Consider/Discuss

This Sunday, on which the secular calendar places Valentine’s Day, how can we be more attentive to touch: human touch, divine touches in prayer, the touch of the Holy Spirit through nature. What are the ways through which God touches you in your life?
As we head toward Lent this week, try reading the whole Gospel of Mark quickly. It’s short; it won’t take very long. Be particularly observant of the process, the flow of action revealed through the verbs. What is the overall arc, the big picture, of what Jesus is doing?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, we fall to our knees and beg you to touch us. Your tenderness transformed the leper. Your touch has transformed our lives. Open our hearts to experience your presence more deeply, your holy caress, your living flame of love. Through your grace, we leave behind words and turn toward your blessed silence. Send your touch. Send your Spirit. Send your love.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

To appreciate the general horror with which lepers were regarded, one has to understand that their disease rendered them ritually unclean. Most in ancient Israel recognized that lepers were not to blame for their condition, but the fact remained that their presence was a threat because contact with them would render one ritually unclean as well. This ritual uncleanness made it impossible to approach the tabernacle or any cultic site. The priests, as guardians of the sacred spaces, were tasked with determining who or what was ritually unclean or clean. Although social isolation and ostracism were the accidental consequences of what was a purely practical separation, they were the inevitable sad result, adding further pain to the physical condition itself.

Just previous to the present reading, Paul has been counseling the Corinthians to use their Christian freedom responsibly, making sure they do nothing to harm the consciences of others. Specifically, Christians who eat meat sacrificed to idols with a clear conscience should not insist on their “right” to do so if it causes scandal. Charity overrules individual rights (10:23–30). No matter what we do, we must do it for the glory of God. Christians have been “purchased at a price” and now belong to the Lord: “Therefore glorify God with your body” (6:20). Christians are at all times to imitate Christ, who sought not his own benefit “but that of the many,” and so gave glory to God.

Already in last week’s Gospel we had indications of a peculiarity of Mark’s Gospel: Jesus’ frequent warnings not to tell anyone about him. Then, the demons were not permitted to speak. Now, the leper is told to keep his mouth shut after he is healed. Scholars suggest the secretiveness is because Jesus knows that the people will proclaim him prematurely as the Messiah, and perhaps bring unwelcome attention from the authorities. Whatever the reason for the warning, the man ignores it completely, immediately telling everyone what Jesus has done for him. The reign of God, now unleashed through Christ, has too powerful an effect to remain hidden for long.

Jan 14 2025

Blessed Are They Who Walk in the Law of the Lord

We live in a country where we prize our freedom, cling to our right to choose, and even define our homeland as “the land of the free.” Today’s scriptures remind us that along with rights come responsibilities. We are to respond to our God who made us and calls us to be a people of the new covenant, ratified by the saving death of God’s Son on the cross.

“If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you,” says Ben Sira (Sirach 15:15). For the Jewish people the law was a blessing and those who chose to keep the law would be blessed with life. That choice is still before us today.

Jesus’ teachings reveal his wisdom in understanding the law of the Mosaic covenant. His grasp of what was at the heart of the law can be clearly found in the long form of today’s Gospel. While there is an option for a shorter version, spend some time with the longer reading (Matthew 5:17–37).

We are to live as kin in what has been called the “kin-dom” of God. In a world that justifies preventative strikes, Jesus forbids not only killing but even getting angry and bearing a grudge. He teaches that reconciliation takes priority over worship, that the prohibition against adultery extends even to looking with lust at another, reducing a person to an object for self-gratification. Finally, he asks us not to swear but to speak with simplicity and integrity.

Some might dismiss all this as impossible to achieve. But, as a young virgin was once told: “[N]othing will be impossible for God” (Luke 1:37).

Consider/Discuss

How does the “law of the Lord” influence my life?
Do I consider God’s law as increasing or limiting my freedom?
Can I accept the “bottom line” that Jesus is asking of his disciples?

Responding to the Word

We can pray for the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand what is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings, and that we both discern what God asks of us and respond wholeheartedly. Thus we witness to others what it means to walk in the law of the Lord.