🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - THE 6TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 🙏

First Reading - Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 

Gospel - Mark 1:40-45

Today’s gospel passage demonstrates that the sick and the maimed are not to be considered as objects of scorn, but potential reservoirs of God’s mercy for us. St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, understood this. At one time in his life, he had a terrible fear of lepers. Then one day when he was out for a ride, he heard the warning bell that lepers were required to ring in the Middle Ages. When a leper emerged from a clump of trees, St. Francis saw that he was horribly disfigured. Half of his nose had been eaten away; his hands were stubs without fingers and his lips were oozing white pus. Instead of giving in to his fears, Francis slid down from his horse, ran forward, embraced the leper, and kissed him. Francis’ life was never the same after that episode. He had found a new relationship with God, a new sensitivity to others and a new energy for his ministry.

All three readings today teach us that we are called to become pure and holy. But we don’t become holy by some ritual observances. We become holy by confessing our sins to God and offering our lives for God’s glory and by sharing God’s love with everyone around us without discriminating against anyone based on color, race, culture, religion, lifestyle, wealth, or social status.

The word Vayikra (the Hebrew name of the Book of Leviticus)means that God called Moses and His chosen people to holiness and purity. That is why the first reading teaches the theme of freedom from bodily and ritual impurity as a sign of internal holiness. This freedom is symbolized by the precautions against contracting leprosy given in the first reading and by the healing of the leper described in the Gospel. The first reading shows the ancient Jewish attitude toward leprosy and gives the rules for the segregation of lepers. This provides a background for Jesus’ healing of a leper. 

In today’s second reading, St. Paul exhorts us to become holy by doing “everything for the glory of God” and by showing sensitivity toward others who are different from us, rather than passing judgment on them. 

Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus heals a leper, liberating him both from the disease of leprosy and from the unjust, inhuman social, ritual, and religious isolation and ostracism to which lepers were subjected.

Dear friends, we need to trust in the mercy of a forgiving God who assures us that our sins are forgiven and that we are clean.We are forgiven and made spiritually clean from the spiritual leprosy of sins when we repent of our sins, because God is a God of love Who waits patiently for us. The only condition required of us is that we ask for forgiveness with a repentant heart. We are sure to hear His words of absolution, “Very well — your sins are forgiven, and you are clean,” echoed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

We need to tear down the walls that separate us from others and build bridges of loving relationship. Jesus calls every one of us to demolish the walls that separate us from each other and to welcome the outcasts and the untouchables of society. These include homosexuals, the imprisoned, AIDS victims, alcoholics, drug addicts and marginalized groups – the divorced, the unmarried-single mothers, migrant workers, and the mentally ill. God’s loving hand must reach out to them through us. Jesus wants us to touch their lives. Let us re-examine the barriers we have created and approach God with a heart that is ready to welcome the outcasts in our society.