Reflection by Deacon Russ for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Don’t you wonder what the disciples thought, or whispered among themselves, when Jesus healed the leper, when he touched a man considered impure? A leper at the time of Jesus was a complete outcast. Scholars tell us that the many skin conditions that made a person unclean were probably not true leprosy. Nevertheless, they were associated with death, a form of living death, and the person who came in contact with such a condition was rendered impure. I have to think that the disciples were shocked and deeply concerned by their master’s actions. And I wonder if they didn’t at least think, if not say, something like, “Lord, you just touched a leper, an unclean person; shouldn’t you do something to purify yourself?”

And we might ask why did Jesus touch this man” After all, he could have healed him from a safe, clinical distance. I suspect Jesus touched this man to give his disciples, and us, a disturbing example. In effect, Jesus was saying, “If I can touch this unclean man, this sinner, this outcast, who under the law must live apart from the community, then you, too, can touch, welcome, even embrace the outcasts you encounter.” And that is what the Gospel challenges us to do today – to find the outcasts in our families, in our work place, in our community, and touch them! And we know these outcasts are everywhere - the black sheep of the family, the difficult person at work, the homeless person walking the streets. All are in need of a healing touch. If not the touch of our hands, then certainly the touch of our full presence, our smile, our kind and understanding words.

In the book Tuesdays with Morrie, which tells the story of a man dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Morrie says that one of the consolations of becoming debilitated is that others now touch him. How tragic that he has to wait so long.

Why are we called to touch the outcasts? Because salvation is experienced most fully in community, the community of a loving relationship between husband and wife, among family members, in a society that truly has compassion for the outcast. This is where God’s saving presence is experienced. God’s love remains constant for the outcast, but the person on the margins struggles to experience it and believe – in the face of all the evidence to the contrary – that it could possibly be true. God’s love flows through our touch, reminding and reassuring those who feel unlovable that they are, indeed, deeply and intensely loved by God. We must be like Jesus, “moved with pity,” and be great touchers, great healers, great lovers.

But the leper in today’s story reminds us that we too at times feel like outcasts. Each of us feels at some time separated from our community, and we feel the anguish of being separated from God. We, too, are in need of healing. What needs to be healed so that cleansed, we, as individuals, would proclaim the glory of God unabashedly to everyone everywhere as did the cleansed person in the Gospel?  Asking Jesus's help to figure that out would be an excellent preparation for Lent. The marvelous reality is that Jesus continues to touch us. And he is not limited to the physical hands that touched the leper. He touches us when we turn to him in prayer, when we take the risk of reconciliation, when we receive him in the Eucharist. We say to Jesus time and time again, “If you choose you can heal me.” And he says back to us without reservation, “I do choose. Be healed.”

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.