1st Reading: Lev.
13:1-2,45-46
2nd Reading: 1Cor.
10:31-11:1
Gospel: Mk. 1: 40-45
Dearest brothers and sisters in the Lord, today
is a special Sunday in the society and in the church. It is a Sunday that
celebrates the theme which is at the foundation of the world. It is the theme
of love. Today is the memorial of St. Valentine, the saint that reminds us of
love and invites us to true love.
As our mother, the church invites us to
celebrate this day of love by teaching us what it means to love. The church
teaches us the type of love that is worth celebrating. She teaches us the love
that should be of prime importance in the heart of every Christian on the 14th
day of February, the type of love that Saint Valentine died for. This love is
seen in the reaction of Jesus towards the leper in the gospel reading of today.
It is love per excellence, a love that conquered physical, social, ritual and
medical boundaries to rescue the loved. We would not understand the depth of
the love Jesus showed the leper if we do not know the conditions of lepers
during the time of Jesus.
The first reading from the book of Leviticus
gave us a sharp and vivid picture of the condition of lepers during the time of
Jesus. It said: “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn
clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper
lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he
has the disease. He shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.” They
were cast out of the society and remained outcasts all through their lives.
They were separated from the people and allowed to die without care and love.
Nobody would want to have these conditions.
During that time, lepers were
seen as the living dead. They were alive in the body but dead in the society.
Leprosy was the worst sickness that time. It destroyed whoever contacted it
physically, socially, mentally and religiously. Physically, leprosy distorted
and disfigured those who suffered it. Their hairs fell off from their heads and
bodies. Their fingernails and toenails loosened, decayed and dropped off. Joint
after joint, their fingers and toes shrunk up and fell away. Their tooth gums
were absorbed, and the teeth gradually disappeared. Then, their nose, eyes and
tongue became slowly consumed.
Socially, a leper was not allowed
to live among his friends and relatives. Lepers were taken away from
their families and forced to live in leper colonies or in caves
outside the city, probably among animals, so that they will not contaminate
other people with their sickness. They lived without love and contact with
human beings. Should a leper decide to go into the city to get help from
people, the law mandated him to ring a bell as he walked, shouting unclean,
unclean. It seems lepers also live in isolation in our societies today.
Religiously, a leper was looked
at as someone who had been punished by God. He was unclean ceremoniously and
was banned from public worship. He wore torn cloths everywhere he went.
Mentally, anyone who is suffering
from segregation and discrimination cannot be balanced.
Dearest friends, those were the unfortunate situations of the leper in the gospel of today. Ritually and legally, nobody was permitted to touch a leper. The reason the contagious nature of leprosy, just like Covid-19. Whoever touched a leper risked suffering from leprosy.
However, the gospel of today said
when the leper approached Jesus, Jesus was moved with compassion and touched
him. So, Jesus took a grave risk and made a big sacrifice by touching the
leper. He disobeyed the Mosaic law and risked becoming a leper just to make the
leper clean. By touching the leper, Jesus bridged the gap between what is clean
and what is unclean. By touching the leper, Jesus identified himself with all
lepers, with all who are ritually or socially unclean and isolated, and with
all of us sinners who are spiritually unclean on account of our sins. Thus, He
became “unclean” in the eyes of the law that we might be made clean. Dear
friends, this is where the story of true love lies. Love seeks to make the
loved better. Love seeks to bridge a social gap. Compassion, sacrifice and risk
taking are factors that should not be lacking when we love.
Love is not made manifest only in
loving the lovable and the beautiful. Love is not shown only in loving our
friends and family. Real love is seen when we love the unlovable, the rejected,
the discriminated, the ugly and those who have been abandoned to die. These
people are everywhere in our society. They are the imprisoned, the sick, alcoholics,
drug addicts and marginalized groups, migrant workers, the
mentally ill, the hungry, and the aged. As we celebrate this feast of love,
Jesus calls us to step out, take a risk and touch these people with real and
true love. We should be ready to break the boundaries of hate, discrimination,
social status and racial identity to show love to other people. We have to take
risks and make sacrifices for the sake of Christ and our beloved ones. This is
real love
In the second reading, Saint Paul
gave us the same challenge of showing love to everyone. He asked his listeners
to learn from him as he tries not to seek his own advantage in what he does but
that of others. So, St. Paul challenges us not to be selfish in our
relationships with others. We should not seek for what pleases us alone,
rather, we should always seek the good of the person we love, and the good of
every person we see.
Friends, the type of love that St. Valentine died for was not a selfish love, it was not immoral love, it was not a
discriminating love, it was love after the manner of Christ.
Happy Valentine, my good people.
Fr. Isaac C. Chima
and Peter Ruckman chalk drawings | Bible preaching, Bible topics, King james bible (pinterest.com)
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