Jesus Agrees With A Leper

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, February 14, 2021

In ancient Israel, no disease was more dreaded than leprosy. The fate of lepers was hard and disastrous. The law restricted them from participation in the community. They were considered unclean, unworthy of God’s holiness and blessings. They were regarded as untouchables and treated as outcastes. This inhuman treatment made lepers very lonely human beings. As we learn from today’s first reading (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46), they are to quarantine outside the camp; keep their rented garments, and have their heads shaved bare. When they move about, they are required to cry out, “Unclean, unclean!” 

This is the miserable condition of the leper in today’s Gospel before he encountered the Way, the Truth, and the Life. With humility, boldness and defiance, he draws near to Jesus, kneels before him and pleads, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Compassionately moved by his plea, Jesus replies, “I do will it. Be made clean.” Instantaneously the leprosy submits to the authority of Jesus and the man is healed. Why is Jesus moved with pity for the leper? In all likelihood, Jesus is moved by the length of time the man has experienced the physical, emotional and spiritual pain and distress of leprosy; by the discrimination that kept him away from the community, from his family, and from the temple. At a time when he needs the support of others, he finds himself all alone in the world. Jesus is moved with pity for how a human being has been treated by his own community. After all, he too is a child of God, created in imago Dei. His disease did not strip him of his dignity. 

But what exactly gave this leper the audacity to break an age-long law that forbids him from approaching Jesus? What gave him the temerity to approach Jesus? Without a doubt, he heard that Jesus of Nazareth is a friend of sinners, the outcasts and rejects. He heard that Jesus raises the dead, restores sight to the blind, makes the lame and crippled walk. He heard that he causes the deaf to hear again, and the mute to speak. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth is establishing something new— the Kingdom of God. What he heard about Jesus causes his fear to make way for faith, and substitutes his timidity with courage. He is finally able to say to the Lord, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” To that Jesus replies, “You bet! I want you to be clean.” Jesus also “broke” the law when he touched the leper. He could have healed him with the power of the spoken word. He didn’t need to touch him. There are instances where he cast out evil spirits with words. So, why did he feel the need to touch the leper? The Pharisees were in the crowd and they know what the law says. Touching the leper is the most clear manner of affirming the leper’s dignity and self-worth, of demonstrating that he is greater than all those things people think he is. People were forbidden from touching a leprous person in order to prevent the disease from spreading, but Jesus touched the leper so that the cure could spread. Touching the leper did not render him unclean, rather, the leper was made clean. Jesus is God! Jesus touched the man because he did not consider him unclean. The unclean is not the leper. The unclean are all those who showed no compassion and treated him with disdain. Anyone who looked the other way upon seeing a suffering human being is the unclean. Those who only see the disability and not the person are the unclean. Those who only see the skin color, and not the human being are the unclean. Those who ignore the anguish cry of another for justice are the unclean. Our overall attitude towards the other— the poor, the immigrants, the elderly, etc. may be our biggest uncleanness. With the leprosy gone, Jesus dismisses him with a do and don’t. Don’t tell anyone. But go and show yourself to the priest and to offer the needed sacrifice. But he could not hold his excitement and joy. He could not keep to himself the mighty work that had been done for him. And do you blame him? He spread the word. His shout is no longer, “Unclean, unclean!” For the first time in a long time, he is able to declare proudly, “I am clean, I am clean.” For the first time in a long time, he would sit among people, enter the synagogue, go to marketplaces, and be accepted in the community.

Sisters and brothers, we are not lepers. We don’t have leprosy. But what leprosy does on the outside is what sin does in the inside. What leprosy does physically is what sin does spiritually. Leprosy isolates a man or woman from the human society. Sin isolates a person from God and from the people of God. Leprosy kills! Sin also kills. Sin fascinates, but then assassinates! The leper needed Jesus to be healed, we also need Jesus to heal us. The leper needed Jesus for restoration, we also need Jesus for restoration. The leper went to Jesus with a prayer request, “If you want to, you can make me clean.” We too need to go to Jesus and ask him to make us clean and whole. Jesus said to the leper, “…go, show yourself to the priest…” that is, “Go to church!” Why priest? It is the duty of the priest to restore a leper back to the community of faith after ascertaining that the leprosy has gone. Why go to church? To receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the means through which become christified, healed, blessed and delivered.