Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2012 B
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp." Leviticus 13:44-46
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 10:31-33
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Mark 1:40-43
Piety
Piety is our cleanliness before the Lord. Our sinfulness is our leprosy. Our piety takes us to the Lord for healing. The Sacraments bring us the healing that is in the life of the Lord within us. How we nourish his life within by frequent communion and confession is the growing in the life of the Lord. Christ becomes our life by our Baptism. Our second birth is into the life of Christ within. Baptism means we belong to the Lord. In the sense that we are alone, we diminish the life of the Lord. The Sacraments bring us the life of Christ within his Mystical Body, the church. Eucharist both takes us into a growing in the life of the Lord within and also takes Christ into our lives. How we are living our lives for him is seen by our participation in the life of his Mystical Body, the Church. People who do not know Christ can have Christ within by the goodness of their lives in the way they share love with spouses and children. But the Christian who accepts the gift Christ bring us of himself by Eucharist has so much more than the stranger to Christ. Christ died for the Human race. But he dies in our dying with him and rises for those who have his life in his oneness with them. The closer we come to Christ, the more we feel the need to share his life with each other.
Study
We study all the ways we can be closer to Christ. Like the leper, we go to Christ to be healed. Because we are created to the image and likeness of Christ by our Baptisms, we learn how to be just like Christ by our Sacramental life which touches us up with God’s love in Christ and Christ’s love in his Sacraments. Christ died for us that we might belong to him in all that we are. He died for our sinfulness so that when we ask God’s forgiveness in Christ, we might have Christ as what the Father sees in us in our sins’ forgiveness in Christ. Christ is our claim on God’s love. Christ is the deepest truth of who we are meant to be. We are becoming the fullness of who we are meant to be when we are growing in the Christ of our inner life.
Action
Our Action is the turning to Christ in our troubles. We find the joy of salvation in Christ. He gives us his love and in giving us his life, challenges us to love one another as he has loved us. Our actions share the joy of salvation when we live our lives in Christ. Christ takes away our guilt of sin when we come to him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the Sacraments our dying with Christ brings the rising with him of the Resurrection. We become by our Sacramental actions the Christ of our world even as we contact the best part of ourselves in the Christ in Heaven. The Sacraments are Christ’s heavenly life lived in us and with us on earth. The story of the leper urges us to go to the Sacraments. Healing takes place with the Sacramental words of Christ in the forgiveness of the priest in confession. Our growing in Christ by Eucharist brings us more and more of Christ. In heaven we will have our fullness in Christ who gives us the beginning of our fullness in our Sacramental life.
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