Walking with Jesus: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

What was it like encountering Jesus? Would you be afraid of Him?  Would you be suspicious of Him? Would you want Him to deliver more proof of who He said He was? How do I encounter Jesus today? I would probably say that I would never react to Jesus the way the people did at that time. In honesty, this is the way I think I would answer this question … but after thinking about it, I do not think this is really true. I’m assuming, and we all know what that means. An example of this is Lent, which arrives this week. Now I’m asking the question, “How will I encounter Jesus this Lent?” Typically I take out my old rulebook or annual give book for Lent that has been with me for years and years. I give up so many of the same things and try to keep my resolutions. In real honesty, this has nothing to do with Lent. This isn’t the essential part of Lent. Actually the most important part of Lent is prayer: encountering our Loving Creator, God, Savior, exactly as we are encountered, with love … God’s love. Do I start Lent with the goal of loving God the way He loves me? Why not?

What do I find myself doing?

I hide my prejudices, watching what I say and to whom I say it.  I’m really covering up myself.
I hide my pettiness, choosing to sulk in private instead.
I hide my dishonesty, careful not to let others see some of my questionable practices.
I hide my grudges and find ways to get back at people without anyone knowing.
I hide my immorality, expressing fake outrage at the failings of others.
I hide my fears and  doubts, choosing instead to pretend to “have it all together.”
I hide my fallibility, refusing to admit my mistakes.
I try to have others see only the best in me.
I really do not work on those things I hang onto: gossip, teasing, belittling, mocking, judging. And my faults remain.
I’m encountering Jesus by hiding the me He knows all about.  
Am I letting God love the me? I’m trying to hide, and he's trying to make me the beautiful person he created me to be.
God can make me whole. And I can say to Jesus,“If you wish, Jesus, you can make me clean.”

God does see beauty in me: This is Lent!
Let God love me!

Leviticus tells us the tribes of Israel accept a covenant relationship with God. God tells them He is accessible to them through the ark of the covenant. Since God is right with them, they must exhibit a proper degree of purity and honesty as God’s chosen people. (Chapters 11 through 16 provide a large swath of legislation.) Today’s reading deals with visible imperfections of the skin: What people see right away when they are encountered. This is what we are so often afraid of:

I just don’t want to be seen for what is right there … but God sees me and loves me. Can I let Him help me?

Paul has been counseling the Corinthians to refrain from seeking from doing things for their own benefit — to think of others as Jesus did continually. Each one of our relationships should contain the culture of a divine encounter, one of divine loving. St. Francis of Assisi learned this in his encounter with the leper near his hometown. He said “what was once bitter to me became sweetness.” Through my seeing eyes, Jesus encounters the many “lepers” I have problems with:  those with brokenness, untidiness, rotten personalities, or unaccepting of my thoughts; qualities that make them unattractive to me. Do I let God use me as a healer of souls?

In the Gospel, Jesus touches the leper. No Jew touches a leper. The diseased are unclean. Leviticus tells us lepers are isolated, not to be “encountered as people God loves.” They shouldn’t be touched, loved, helped or even cleaned. This man begs to be cleansed and Jesus touches Him and heals him. The only way the man feels safe is to come to Jesus. Jesus allows Himself to be moved by what and whom He encounters.  He tells the leper to show himself to the priests. This highlights a social dimension: Healing is also a healing of the entire community ... the community that has shunned the leper from itself. Am I isolating and refusing people God is calling me to welcome and love? Is this what I can work on this Lent?

So I reflect on:

• Today is Valentine’s Day. It is a tremendous reminder of our attentiveness to human loving touches. How selective am I in my loving touches with others? Do I ask God for help?
• Jesus touches the leper. How do I pass around invisible valentines of kind acts and warm acceptance, making sure no one feels unclean or unwelcome?
  

Sacred Space 2021 states:

“Again in this Gospel we find Jesus moved with pity. Leprosy was a living death: the sufferer was isolated from family and community and had to cry out ‘Unclean, unclean!’ when anyone approached. Touching the leper made Jesus ritually unclean also. There are no lengths to which Jesus will not go to help this man. He touches him, speaks to him, and gives him his freedom to be fully human again.

“I spend a few moments with the leper before his cure, and then meet him afterward. What might he say to me about faith in Jesus? About my pity for others in need? Whom do I touch?”