Human Fully Alive Is the Glory of God!

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lv 13:1-2,44-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45

Today’s readings invite us to proclaim the goodness of God through our lives. 

The first reading gives us a sense of how leprosy was a dreaded disease. The lepers not only underwent extreme physical pain but also suffered emotional and psychological trauma when they were deprived of social communion. Once leprosy hit someone, it was only a life of quarantine, and in those days with no medical advancements, such separation was intended to prevent mass infection. In addition, when the skin began to rot as a result of the disease, the stink was unbearable for anyone to have the person close by. Hence, a leper was denied communion in every form of social life: family, society, and religious community. Above all, if they ever passed through common places or neighborhoods, the leper was to cry out ‘unclean and unclean,’ as mentioned in the first reading. All these give us a picture of the stigma that the lepers carried all their lives until death. Because of the shame and suffering that the lepers had to put up with, it was considered God’s punishment, and as such, healing could also come only from God. 

In the Gospel, we find Jesus breaking every convention to heal the leper. When the leper draws near Jesus, he does not move away. Jesus could have cured him without touching him. But Jesus means an intentional touch here. Moved with pity for him, Jesus reaches out to him. As against the defiling touch, Jesus’s own becomes a healing touch. Moreover, the passage clearly manifests the leper’s faith. Knowing that only God has the cure for the disease, the leper appeals to Jesus, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’ It is not just his confession of faith in Jesus but also his confession of Jesus’ divine identity. Jesus asks the leper to show himself to a priest who will understand the Divinity of Jesus because no one but God could have healed a leper. On the one hand, it is the authority of Jesus over incurable diseases like leprosy. On the other, it is Jesus’ compassion for those who suffer, and his instinctual response is to help out and heal the person. 

For me, the healed man’s behaviour comes as a surprise. Though at the outset one can see his disobedience, I see his act of divulging the secret as a rightful gesture that obstinately acknowledges the cure. The healed man feels compelled to make known the goodness of Jesus and does not want to hide it despite his request. Maybe because he thought holding back the news about Jesus’ goodness amounted to betrayal than obedience. Amidst people who feel ‘ashamed’ to manifest their gratitude, this man’s gesture comes as exemplary behaviour, though it came at the cost of disobeying Jesus’ orders. I believe that such ‘disobedience’ is more needed for this age, not only to uncover the goodness that remains hidden quite often but also to counter the pretensions of some who are evil claiming to be good, when those who are good do not lay claim to their goodness. The leper experienced goodness, healing, and blessings from God, and he proclaimed the same, not restrained by the words of Jesus. 

In the second reading, Paul addresses the division over the Corinthian community’s eating habits and insists that everything must be done to proclaim the glory of God. Paul is clear that their food habits should not hinder anyone from coming to or growing in faith. The ‘pleasing’ is not to be understood as compromising. Rather, it is to avoid seeking only one’s own advantage, and thus, everybody in the community becomes important. Above all, Paul shows himself as an exemplar, inviting them to follow him as he follows Christ Himself. 

In sum, this Sunday invites us to proclaim the goodness of the Lord. Jesus takes away the idea of the punishment of God by healing the leper. Jesus demonstrates that God’s glory is revealed in human well-being. It is this Good News that we are called to proclaim, like the ‘disobedient’ leper who seems to think that he was doing it to spread the glory of God, as Paul instructs. 

St. Irenaeus said, ‘Man fully alive is the glory of God.’

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar