Leprosy 6th Sunday
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“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” - 1 Cor 11:1
“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” - 1 Cor 11:1
Isn’t this what life is all about?! Imitate Christ! But I will be satisfied if you imitate St. Paul ;-)
The kids aren’t affected by a crucifix, “Yea, so what?!”
The kids aren’t affected by a crucifix, “Yea, so what?!”
Recently there was this one youth minister. She showed her students an image of the crucifix, and noticed that for some, they weren’t moved. She proceeded to show them a scene from the Passion of the Christ. Another person told me that they watched the Passion in the theatres with other people. “They were crying, I wasn’t...” Why were they and why wasn’t I?
That’s unfortunate for him! Glad it ain’t me.
And this is an attitude we can easily adopt, and then, when its our turn to suffer something, “WHY GOD?!?!” There musn’t be ONE then...
But when we understand that He took our place, not poor him, but wretched me! Thank you!
Solution in OT:
Kill one bird in a bowl under water, dip another bird into that one’s blood and then let it fly away. Is this not us and Christ? We are only free by being dipped into His blood?! What a sublime trade!
Story of St. Catherine of Siena and being disgusted with humanity
Story of St. Catherine of Siena and being disgusted with humanity
We get disgusted by things that others have and that others do.
But its sin that we should be revolted by, not sickness. We know we are going to die. We aren’t looking for a way out of this life, but something will get us.
“I would rather die than commit a mortal sin!” Dominic Savio.
Leprosy is pretty nasty, but slow.
Leprosy is pretty nasty, but slow.
Symptoms of leprosy
Symptoms of leprosy
Leprosy progresses very slowly. Most people who have leprosy do not develop symptoms for at least a year after being infected by the bacteria. In most cases, it takes 5 to 7 years for symptoms to develop.
Leprosy damages the nerves and muscles. It may cause sores, lesions, lumps, and bumps to appear on the skin.
St. Francis
St. Francis
NABRE (Mark 1)
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” 42 The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Its a pitiful sight
St. Francis of Assisi had a fear and abhorrence of lepers. One day, however, he met a man afflicted with leprosy while riding his horse near Assisi. Though the sight of the leper filled him with horror and disgust, Francis got off his horse and kissed the leper. Then the leper put out his hand, hoping to receive something. Out of compassion, Francis gave money to the leper.
But when Francis mounted his horse again and looked all around, he could not see the leper anywhere. It dawned on him that it was Jesus whom he had just kissed.
(But in order to have this encounter, Francis needed to heed the Lord earlier, to rebuild the Church at Damiano, each subsequent call depends on answering the former call, what was that voice that called out to him - trx. by IFH)
In his Testament, Francis wrote, “When I was in sin, the sight of lepers nauseated me beyond measure; but then God himself led me into their company, and I had pity on them. When I became acquainted with them, what had previously nauseated me became the source of spiritual and physical consolation for me.”
...Francis goes on to write in his Testament: “The friars should be delighted to follow the lowliness and poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ, remembering that of the whole world we must own nothing; but having food and sufficient clothing, with these let us be content, as St Paul says. They should be glad to live among social outcasts, among the poor and helpless, the sick and the lepers, and those who beg by the wayside.
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/st-francis-meets-the-leper/
Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need;
Christ is the clean one who becomes unclean for us, he takes our place
Christ is the clean one who becomes unclean for us, he takes our place
To the clean all things are clean, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean; in fact, both their minds and their consciences are tainted.
This is how easy it is for God to accomplish what naturally would take time, even on antibiotics, immediately...
Its amazing that Christ reaches out and touches before He declares Him unclean!
43 Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
44 Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
There will be a time to share what God has done, but He tells the same thing to his disciples when He sends them out, Luke 10:4
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.
Christ sees beyond what we can see, that our lives and His mission is bigger than any one of us.
but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
Christ was inviting the priests into relation with Him too. Only God could heal leprosy. The priests got this guy, probably others, and the other story with the 10 lepers. They would be thinking, “woah! God is doing something!”
And this was fulfilled in Acts 6:7
Acts 6:7 (NABRE)
The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
That will be proof for them - proof of what?!?!
Leviticus 13:46 (NABRE)
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean.
His first sacrifice in years!!!! What that would have been like. Two turtledoves…like the two goats, you are forgiven, you are clean and inspected.
45 The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
“I will be glorified, with or without you!” “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but I will be glorified.” “We can do it my way…or we can do it my way!”
Our job is to encounter Christ, to approach Him and then tell others the good news. We encounter people, preach the Gospel and witness to people.
The Leper is such a person who has been rejected, because of his fault or others. Christ gives them a second chance at life. And what does he do? He messes up right away! He does exactly what Christ told him not to do!
“But maybe its what Christ really wanted him to do.?!?!”
Well no, because it made it harder for Christ to come and go. Because of not doing things God’s way, Christ became the outcast. Not because of leprosy, but because of fame. But I wonder, was there a soul who didn’t come to interact with Jesus, a missing story from the Bible, because it never happened?!
We need to stop being an obstacle to Christ and rather, share His mind!
CCC 2046 By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God, “a kingdom of justice, love, and peace.” They do not, for all that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfill them with uprightness, patience, and love.
You and I don’t know what we don’t see with Christ, because we don’t see it. Our job this lent, is to get out of sin, to go to the priests and have them declare the words of absolution, which in essence are, “I do will it, be made clean, come back into the community.” That’s not the end of the story, we have to continue putting ourselves in position to hear the voice of God even knowing that God can use our sin to draw others to Himself, “But I can just confess myself to God.” Nope! You can’t. You’re already trying to do it your way!
We start, in the next couple of days asking the Lord, “OK Lord, what is your way! Get me on it, If I don’t choose the easy way then use the hard way, but get me on the way!!!!”
1) We do this in Lent by taking it seriously, its not nothing, we have to say a lot of No’s during Lent, its not fun. We have to fast from food especially, get a little hungry, its hard, especially at the beginning, Don’t gorge today on Super Bowl!
2) We have to take care of the poor. What you do to the least and the lepers, you do to Christ.
3) We have to spend time in prayer at least saying with our bodies, Lord, I want to hear you!