Thursday, January 16, 2014
1st Week in Ordinary Time First Reading: 1 Sm 4:1–11
Gospel Reading: Mk 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and begged him, “If you so will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” The leprosy left the man at once and he was made clean. As Jesus sent the man away, he sternly warned him, “Don’t tell anyone about this, but go and show yourself to the priest and for the cleansing bring the offering ordered by Moses; in this way you will make your declaration.”
However, as soon as the man went out, he began spreading the news everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter any town. But even though he stayed in the rural areas, people came to him from everywhere.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Jesus’ association with sinners was an affront to the then existing religious practice of treating sinners as outcasts. Lepers shared the same lot, for they too were considered outcasts. To peoples’ shock and to the chagrin of the Jewish religious leaders Jesus did not only associate with them but even touched them as he cured them.
This predilection for lepers and for all those considered outcasts found full expression when later in his Passion he became like them – abandoned, and even physically disfigured. Like lepers he was disfigured by the wounds that covered his entire body. He was treated worse than public sinners since he was punished with crucifixion – the punishment reserved for hardened criminals.
The late Pope John Paul II referred to Jesus as the image and symbol of lepers while hanging on the cross. He said that the prophet Isaiah had foreseen this when he contemplated the mystery of the Servant of the Lord. Isaiah wrote: “There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, neither the appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men… one of those from whom men hide their faces…while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:2-4).
Solidarity with the humblest is supposed to be the mark of the Church as it manifests in the world Christ’s predilection for the marginalized. PCP II reaffirmed this when it underlined the Church’s preferential option for the poor strongly anchored on Jesus’ preference to leave the ninety nine to search for the lost sheep.
We are part of this big representation of Christ in this world. Let us help the marginalized even as we are marginalized ourselves. This way, outcasts will continue to feel Christ’s warm embrace. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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