So many of us take the simple gift of a community for granted. In a world where it is encouraged and lauded to spend more time in virtual communication than face-to-face interactions, it is tough for us to understand the leper in today’s Gospel. This man was isolated from society. If any other person approached him, he was required to shout, “Unclean, unclean.” To be touched by another who was not also unclean was not expected and was believed to make the other just as dirty, just as sinful as the leper himself.
Jesus, on the other hand, not only touches him but heals him of his disease. Then instructs him to tell no one but rather go to the established religious authorities and begin the community’s slow process of reconciliation. We know for sure from the reading of the Scriptures that the man didn’t listen to Jesus and his instructions. He instead made it easier for himself (the leper) to be a part of the community, but at the same time, more difficult for Jesus to enter towns and complete His mission.
God uses miracles to help draw people to Him. But even the most miraculous circumstances in our lives can be a hindrance if we fail to live out our faith. If we fail to follow what Jesus has commanded us to do, we become a hindrance. We make it harder for Him to enter into our lives. All around us, things are happening; life is beginning, ending, forming, changing. Jesus is right there in the middle of it all, the extraordinary and the mundane, trying to use us to spread the message of salvation. The Gospel, the Good News. That is what the dismissal of Mass is all about: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by Your Life.”
The healing of the leper was an opportunity for him to be obedient to God, to restore not just his relationship to the community but with God as well. Sometimes we think we know better than God what we should do, and the leper probably thought “people need to hear about this.” But instead of making it better, it made it harder for the rest of the world to get to Jesus.
Today a simple thing to meditate on is this: How can we respond to Jesus in a way to make it easier for Him to enter into our homes, our hearts, and our relationships?
Thursday of the First Week of Ordinary Time: January 14th, 2021