Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Think about it! We are the fortunate survivors of a pandemic that killed about 7 million people! You remember the COVID quarantine? It affected every aspect of human life – social, economic, religious, family, and educational. Now just imagine a quarantine that would last a lifetime! Perhaps, that gives us an insight into the fate of lepers in the Old Testament and Jesus’ time.
The laws about leprosy that we hear in today’s first reading (Lev 13:1-2, 44-46) may sound oppressive. But, in reality, they were reasonable. Just like the pandemic quarantine, laws regulating leprosy were necessary to deal with a highly contagious disease that lacked modern medicine. Nevertheless, the condition of the lepers was immensely pitiable. Ostracized, looked down, and avoided by family and society, they lived in a lifetime of total isolation.
Having said all that, my focus in this homily is neither on the leprosy laws nor the leper in the gospel reading. I am choosing today to focus on Jesus who healed the leper. I want to focus on the God that Jesus reveals through the healing of the leper.
God of the Peripheries
Society of Jesus’ time followed the Mosaic laws around leprosy. However, the gospel account of the healing of the leper breaks all Mosaic laws. The leper, instead of using his wooden clapper to warn people of his presence, dared to approach Jesus. Instead of avoiding socialization, the leper knelt before Jesus and begged him to heal him. For me, though, it is how Jesus responded that is even more interesting. Jesus responded unlike the rest of society and the religious establishment. Instead of looking down on the leper, Jesus was moved with compassion. Instead to staying clear of the leper, Jesus stretched out his hand. Instead of avoiding contact with the leper, Jesus touched him. Instead of further ostracizing him, Jesus restored him back into society.
The point I am trying to make is that there is a God whom Jesus reveals in the story. Not only this story, but the all the four gospels reveal a God of the peripheries. In the tax-collectors, the sinners, the prostitutes, and people like the Samaritans, Jesus embraced those on the peripheries. He hung out with them, worked with them, ate and drank with them, and restored them to society.
Jesus’ response to the outcast leper raises questions for us in modern day society and Church. Who belongs in the Church? Who does not? Who are the insiders of society? Who are the outcasts? And, who decides who is in and who is out? And why? But the most important question of them all is if we think like the rest of society or do we think like Jesus. What are the implications if we believe in a God of the peripheries?
Who is the Leper?
There is an interesting detail in the gospel story that we might be inclined to overlook. Jesus asked the leper to keep the news of his healing to himself. I am surprised that Jesus trusted the man who violated Mosaic laws to comply with his request. Of course, the man went and publicized his healing. Mark tells us, “He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places…” (Mk 1:45). In other words, the man is restored to society but now Jesus has to move about in the peripheries like the leper. Jesus changed places with the leper.
The climax of this movement toward the periphery is best exemplified in Jesus’ death. Jesus, who worked a lifetime with those on the periphery, was killed on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Humanity is in but Jesus is out! What a paradox this is! In fact, the entire story of Jesus’ incarnation is captured in the story of the healing of the leper.
Jesus left heaven to come out to us in the peripheries, heal us of the leprosy of sin, and restore us back into heaven. The leper restored back into society is symbolic of humanity restored back to the garden, to heaven, to eternity. Hear me out! The leper is not just out there. The leper is also you and me. We are all sinners. We are all infected by the leprosy of sin. But God did not look down upon us, avoid us, and further ostracize us. Rather, through Christ God stretched out God’s hands, touched us, and healed us. Even today, this ministry of healing and reconciliation continues through the Sacramental life of the Church. But it all came at a cost. God became a God of the peripheries so that we might be restored to eternity.
A Society and Church for All
I want to share an experience during my recent visit to India. I had made an appointment to meet with an orthopedic doctor in a local Catholic hospital that is right in my neighborhood. I was number 5 on the list to meet the doctor. When the doctor began seeing patients, I was called first. I soon realized that it was because the hospital records showed my name as Fr. Satish Joseph. In a Catholic hospital, the priest was seen first even though other people were ahead of me. To be honest, I was not unhappy. But again, to be honest, I was unhappy, because I am sensitive to clericalism. It saddened me that structures exist where some are more privileged, and others are not. I have another appointment when I go home in June, and I have decided this time I will make sure that I be called in the order in which I should be seen.
I have shared a simple example of how society or a religious institution can create structures for belonging and not belonging, for advantages and disadvantages. Such structures exist across society and even the Church. Race, social status, political clout, gender, wealth, and sexual orientation can make some people to belong and others to be excluded. They make some people privileged and others disadvantaged.
If we believe in a God of the peripheries, then we must constantly evaluate the kind of society and Church we help to create and sustain. Most of all we must remember that we were once on the peripheries and that it is God’s compassion, justice, love, and grace that restored us back to where we belong.
On the Eucharistic altar, God is still God of the peripheries. Jesus is here and we all belong even though we are all sinners. There are no insiders and outsiders here. As we worship the God of the peripheries, may be also walk in the footsteps of the God of the peripheries.
- Fr. Satish Joseph