6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 14, 2021

Every time I read this Gospel it sends me down memory lane to my time in East Africa. One of my more memorable experiences among many was spending some time with lepers in a leper colony. I usually went there with some nuns who also happened to be nurses at a nearby hospital. They would bring some medication and I would spend my time talking and praying with them. They appreciated our visits very much because we need to remember that leprosy is not only a debilitating disease but what is just as bad as the social stigma that is attached to it. These people were condemned to a life of isolation and the only people they had contact with were other lepers. What I remember very distinctly about our visits was, we would go around and give them hugs and those hugs could last 5 minutes or more and they were nearly just as important as medication because we were giving them the gift of self-acceptance. When I think of leprosy, I cannot help but think of that great priest, Peter Damien who ministered for many years to lepers in the remote island of Molokai and who himself eventually died of that dreadful disease.
 
We just read about Jesus curing a leper. The phrase that jumps out at me here is, he told them not to tell anyone and this man was not very good at keeping a secret, so he did the opposite and went and told everyone. I suppose that most of us would have done the same. I do think that there is a special teaching moment for all of us here. First, it is important to note that Jesus did not perform miracles as gimmicks to win people over to Christianity because the fact is that Christianity has no magic tricks to offer a skeptical or unbelieving public, and even if it had the memory would be short-lived. Rather, miracles were to strengthen the faith of those who already believed. More than once he told people that it was their faith that saved them and more than once he told them not to tell anyone. Why did he say this? Some would say that he did it to protect his own privacy. That may be so, but I also believe that he intended it as a ministry for the person who was healed. What this man needed the most now was some quiet time to think, to think about the person who cured him, to think about why he was cured, and most importantly how he was going to handle his new lease on life. These questions need to be answered honestly because a healthy body does not necessarily lead to a meaningful life.
 
Every day God touches our lives in different ways just as surely as he touched the leper. The problem with many of us is that we do not allow enough silence to appreciate what we have and then we tend to focus on our problems more than our blessings. I believe that is what Jesus had in mind when he told the man to keep quiet. I will conclude with the words of a great spiritual writer who said, “Only the person who can bear silence can truly near the word of God.