Celebrating 100 over years in Irondequoit
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Cycle B
- B202: Why didn't Jesus want the people he healed to tell anyone? Surely that would have been a great witness to his divine power?
- Do all for the glory of God.
- Q. 358: We hear about the uncleanness of "lepers" today (Lev 13:1-2,44-46; Mark 1:40-45), kept apart because of possible contagion. How far do we have to go in imitating saints like Francis, who seems to have even kissed lepers?
- Q515: It seems so cruel, to force a person to go outside the city to live, because of an infection or disease (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46).
B202: Why didn't Jesus want the people he healed to tell anyone? Surely that would have been a great witness to his divine power?
Because of his healing ministry, Jesus was fast becoming a "celebrity" to such an extent that he suffered from one of the same problems with which the Hollywood stars have to cope. They are like a magnet, drawing people to themselves such as fans, admirers, sensation seekers, and people trying to make a fast buck (e.g., the paparazzi - journalists who hound the famous people incessantly). This constant invasion of privacy drives the celebrities into hiding, since they cannot live a "normal" life without being surrounded continuously.
For this same reason, Jesus would warn those he healed to "tell no one," because fame from these actions would impede his movements. He had a mission to carry out and Good News to proclaim, and a very short time in which to do that. So we read about his rising before dawn to avoid the crowds, in order to find desert solitude and space to pray (last Sunday's gospel); or he would go up into the mountains to pray. Many times he and the apostles would try to "escape" from the crowd by leaving in a boat.
Jesus' healing mission always had one goal: to restore the "unclean" and isolated person back to his community, which would also be a witness to the glory of his Father. He did not want the sick person to be ignored and avoided by his friends and family simply because they had a problem. No one is an outcast around Jesus, not even the leper!
Know Your Catechism! Do you find friends and neighbors avoiding you when you or a family member become seriously ill? If so, you are sharing in the suffering of the outcasts. We need to remember that the Church continues the healing mission of Jesus, and offers special healing prayers called the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick for those with serious illnesses (CCC #1509-10). This Sacrament is offered to parishioners at any time of serious illness, and especially when they are in danger of death from sickness or old age (CCC #1514). Call your parish priest, who is the proper minister of this great Sacrament (CCC #1516), and celebrate it with your family present (CCC #1517). There are many important graces received through this Sacrament (CCC $1520-22), including the compassion of the believing community.
A feature story in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle of September 18, 1981 revealed a sad personal tragedy. Mrs. Cynthia Fitzpatrick, aged 116, was about to be evicted because of over $1000 of unpaid taxes. It was not that the Rochester finance department officers were intentionally cruel. They were simply enforcing the local law, a law which made no exceptions for centenarians.
An alerted public rallied to the cause. A black leader paid the tax installment immediately due; and Cynthia's minister set up a special fund to help Rochester's oldest citizen and the 56 year-old granddaughter who lived with her. Mrs. Fitzpatrick's response was one of deep faith: "It's what the Master said: Take care of the widows and orphaned children. I can say people have played their part by me."
I would have expected her to comment thus. I had first encountered this deeply spiritual black woman in 1976. When the floating New York State museum called the "Bicentennial Barge" docked at Rochester on September 4, a Lutheran minister and myself were invited to say a brief prayer at the local opening. The ribbon-cutting was reserved for a black senior citizen whom I had never met. "That's Cynthia Fitzpatrick," a bystander whispered to me. "She was born in 1864 in Mississippi of slave stock."
Cynthia wore a long, attractive dress and a picture hat. She was a woman of smiling countenance and great dignity. When her moment came, she approached the gangplank, her arm linked with that of a friend. The crowd was silent as she took the scissors. Her speech was brief, but she said all that was needed to transform a patriotic event into a spiritual moment. "In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, I cut this ribbon."
...Whatever you do, you should do all for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31. Today's second reading.)
-Father Robert F. McNamara
Q. 358: We hear about the uncleanness of "lepers" today (Lev 13:1-2,44-46; Mark 1:40-45), kept apart because of possible contagion. How far do we have to go in imitating saints like Francis, who seems to have even kissed lepers?
There is something about our perception of "ugly" that repels us. Something or someone "different" puts fear into us, which can be a positive value (for example, correctly seeking safety from disease) or a negative value (ostracism of the other person). St. Francis encountered "ugly" in a leper one day. Although repelled through his sense of smell and sight, Francis still mustered up the courage to kiss the leper; the kiss was returned, and Francis was filled with divinely infused joy.
Both Francis and Jesus (in today's gospel) teach us what our reaction to "ugly" ought to be. The person who is ostracized for whatever reason has been labeled an "outsider." Everyone else is on the "insider" group. St. Francis broke the social barrier by refusing to accept such divisions. Jesus broke that barrier of ostracism many times, by healing the "ugly" and restoring the isolated persons to their families and community.
We need to go to the "heart" of the matter. Whatever causes separation and division needs healing, and we all are part of that process. Francis and Jesus probably had a lot of people avoid them for quite awhile, because they had actually touched the "ugly"! In the process of making others "insiders" they themselves had become "outsiders," even if only temporarily. So look at your own life: who do you treat as "outsiders"? Are you any better than kids at school who learn how to be verbal bullies at such a young age? What would Jesus or Francis do if they came across one of your "outsiders"? Who really needs healing: you or the ones you ostracize and hold in contempt?
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! The answer to most of life's problems is always "Jesus," who did everything to restore people to proper relationships. We look to Jesus on the cross - Jesus, the only one in right relationship to God the Father and others - to see how he suffered patiently for us, prayed constantly for us, and gave his life to restore us to God. Now we are called to break down those very same barriers of ostracism. It begins with our prayer for mercy (CCC #2616). Properly humbled, we can then share in his ministry of compassion and healing (CCC #1506).
Q515: It seems so cruel, to force a person to go outside the city to live, because of an infection or disease (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46).
We need to “put on the mind” of the people who lived thirty centuries ago in Moses’ era and through the subsequent centuries (and that’s a l-o-o-o-n-g time!). They knew from experience that a communicable disease could destroy an entire town, unless the potential for spreading the disease was immediately stopped. Leprosy – the real thing – was a horrible, disfiguring condition that no one knew how to cure. So protective “isolation” was the only apparent solution at that time. Today we know how to respond to skin disorders, and where to get proper medical treatment.
Jesus always had total compassion for those marginalized by social customs of every kind, and today’s gospel story (Mark 1:40-45) reflects his heart that wants to heal and restore the diseased to a proper relationship with God and community.
Look at the stories of “restoration” at a deeper, spiritual level. Sin is the greatest “disease” that isolates us from God, and prevents us from having a proper relationship with humankind. Until that obstacle is removed, we are truly spiritual lepers who desperately need the healing compassion of our Lord and Savior. We have put up a wall in our hearts that prevent the Holy Spirit from being active in our lives. Thanks be to God, we have been given the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the vehicle and avenue to break down that wall and to restore those relationships. Just like the lepers, we need to humble ourselves and cry out to God for mercy, asking the Savior to cleanse us of all of our sins. Instead of looking with disgust at lepers, we need to thank them for providing a demonstration of the way to be healed of the worst disease of all.
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Jesus hears our prayers and our cries for mercy (CCC #2616). He formally gave his authority to forgive sins to the Apostles, which they in turn delegated to their successors, the Catholic Bishops and Priests (CCC #1441-42). The effect of this forgiveness is restoration – the alienation of the sinner is removed, and he is restored to God and community (CCC #1443).
