This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
06th Sunday of Ordinary YearMake me ………Give me back my community!Lev 13:1-2, 44-46 1Cor 10:31-11:1 Mk 1:40-45Dear Sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, I welcome you to this Eucharistic celebration. We have come to begin another new week in the presence of the Lord. We gather every time as a family, as a community and as beloved children of God. This celebration and gathering offer us a sense of identity and strong feeling of belonging. As we enter into this sacred death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, we may be aware of the dying and rising moments of our daily life. Jesus’ Body broken and Blood shed may call us to be in touch with our wounds of isolation and separation and search for healing. Our call to Jesus is, ‘make me clean and put me back (give me back) in to community.’The hardest and the most hurting feeling one never likes to face is the feeling of isolation, separation and loneliness. This cuts off one’s contact from family, friends, friends and community. This can be called as a psychological death of a person. What is our prayer during such situations? • I have been struggling long yeas with this terminal illness…..Lord, make me clean. • My stroke has affected my movements and has killed my spirit….Lord, make me clean. • My anger keeps other in distance away from me…… Lord make me clean. • I lose patience and miss being part of a group….Lord make me clean. • My daughter has left me and my son is in the company of addiction…Lord, make me clean. • My family let me down as I was considered as burden……….Lord make me clean. • My internal wounds are more hurting than my physical wounds….Lord make me clean. This is our reality. These are moments where we look for healing and longing for acceptance and as well as strong desire to get back to our community or family. The advanced and modern technology and science help us to cope up with many dreadful diseases. But throughout history we have witnessed a massive loss of life. The Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, was the worst plague that destroyed the most lives from this civilized world, claiming more than half of Europe’s population around 1350. There was mysterious Influenza epidemic that claimed many lives in 1918. In the 1940’s and 50’s the Polio left people crippled and maimed. In our times, various types of cancer, AIDS, Ebola and other terminal illness are threats to our well-being. Unknown skin disease, presumed as leprosy, caused the same feeling and threat to the society in 1 AD. Psalm 88 expresses the cry of the person who was struggling with this humiliating skin disease. “88:6 my couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care. 88:7 you plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss. 88:18 all the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me. 88:19 Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness.” What was the experience and feeling of the people who were affected by leprosy? Our first reading text gives certain details; however, if we read the entire 13th chapter of Leviticus, then we will understand the mental agony, physical torture, spiritual distress and social separation they went through. Leprosy or with such skin disease was looked at as follows…… • Person was considered as unclean • A leper was an outsider • The place the leper lived, the things used by him and persons who come into contact with him or her were unclean. • Leper is examined and confirmed by the temple priest and sent outside of community. • They were chased, thrown away and kept out of sight in a pit outside of society. • They were cut off from the regular life style and their family. • They have to remain with the torn clothes and uncovered head. • They had to close their mouths and keep shouting “unclean” when they went about begging for food. This shouting of “unclean, unclean”, with the ringing of bell kept others away. • If they tried to reach out to others, they could be stoned to death • It was considered as punishment from God (Num12:10-15 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses and Miriam who became a victim of leprosy). What did all these cause to the person with the skin disease of leprosy? Their face was disfigured, and was considered as contagious, thus it caused humiliation and isolation. Leprosy was blamed as a curse from God, so they were totally cut off from the rest of family and the world. The physical deformity, emotional shamefulness, social alienation and spiritual distress caused not only slow death, but rather put them in the position as if they were already dead (the living dead). Their skin was dead, their contact was dead, and their interaction was dead. What are the wounds I bury alive? What are the wounds that keep me away from my family, friends, community and church? Can I say: “make me clean Lord, get me back to community?” How does the Leper approach Jesus, differently in the Gospel? Instead of calling, “unclean, unclean, go away from me”, he came to Jesus; he broke the blame, stigma, laws and practice, and believed in his efforts and faith. He finds the power in Jesus. He says, ‘I do not want you to touch me, because you will be called unclean by others though you are clean eternally.’ He pleads, and seeks with right, “make me clean” and give me back my community. How does Jesus differ from the temple priest? The Temple priest used to confirm and certify the Lepers’ cure, and they demanded that the one cured needed to offer sacrifice for purification before getting back to their family and community. Jesus is the Temple and the High Priest; He was moved with pity; He was moved with anger when seeing the alienation and indifferent discrimination. To prove that this situation is neither a curse nor a punishment, Jesus extending His hand and touching him says, “you are clean, you are part of me and go now be part of your community. Go back to priest and offer the necessary sacrifice.” Instead, he went to the community directly, and publicly revealed that he was made clean and got back to community by the power of Jesus. Vinicio Riva 53 year Italian who has suffered from neurofibromatosis since he was 15, tells that people are scared to come close to him because of his body is covered with hundreds of boils on his face and body. He heard many times during his bus travels, “Go away! Don’t sit next to me!” After Pope Francis’ hug during the papal audience, Riva shared that his heart was bursting. ‘I felt like I was in paradise,’ “You should not hear confession, celebrate Eucharist, no anointing and no doing of burials”… these were the instructions given to the Molokai saint, Fr. Damien, by the Bishop. But when the ship came to pick him after 30days when his visa expired, he refused to return home to Belgium. Persons of all faith were in the colony. Only ten of them were Catholics, yet all gathered for the Eucharist. He was the first non-leper who entered there and died among them, with and as one of them, with leprosy. They use to say about him that, “He holds our hands when we die.” The affection, sense of belonging and human dignity shown brought the peaceful death in that moment of illness. Fr. Damien shows us the way to live the mission, in serving our neighbors the hospitality of welcoming into community, being concerned for and honoring each member as parts of the Body of Christ; only then will we understand the transcendent joy of giving of ourselves, so that “all may be one” in Christ. “Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the most tender of friends with souls who seek to please Him. His goodness knows how to proportion itself to the smallest of His creatures as to the greatest of them. Be not afraid then in your solitary conversations, to tell Him of your miseries, your fears, your worries, of those who are dear to you, of your projects, and of your hopes. Do so with confidence and with an open heart.” Fr. Damien of Molokai What are my wounds that keep me away from my faith community? Whom do I need to visit and bring back to our community of faith? Am I able to welcome the stranger as part of my community?-Amen 
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