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When reading today’s scriptures, I recalled the 1981 American Telephone and Telegraph (“AT&T”) slogan “Reach out and touch someone” devised for its new national advertising campaign. The slogan was intended to motivate AT&T customers to increase use of their telephones and, of course, to bring more cash into AT&T’s coffers. In the first reading, the Lord basically told Moses and Aaron to do the exact opposite of the what AT&T slogan stated: not only not to touch an unclean person, but also to see to it that this individual was banished from the community so as to keep it pure. In contrast, the gospel depicts Jesus doing exactly what the AT&T slogan advocated. Mark tells us:
Moved
with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand, touched [the man], and
said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” In short, Jesus violated Mosaic law by reaching out and touching a sinner. Many learned commentators have discussed Jesus’ antinomian behavior. Many other learned commentators have discussed all of this in terms of the culture in which Jesus was raised and grew up, one whose members didn’t understand the nature of disease as we do today, and sought to protect its members by banishing those afflicted by virulent disease from its midst. In contrast to these learned commentaries, I’d like to focus today solely upon the concept of “reaching out to touch someone,” as Jesus did. In doing so, I am not so much interested in the outcome, namely, the miraculous healings Jesus effected by reaching out to and touching sinners. What I am primarily interested in considering today is what is required of us if, as Jesus did, we are to reach out and touch sinners. Mark provides one hint concerning what’s exactly required in that Jesus, as those learned commentators have pointed out, acted contrary to the prescriptions of Mosaic law. That is, Jesus did not use religious law to justify treating sinners in a way that would demean their humanity. After all, they are God’s creatures! Mark provides a second hint concerning what’s exactly required in that Jesus, once again as those learned commentators have pointed out, acted contrary to his culture’s mores. To do either—to use religious law or cultural mores to justify demeaning others and their human dignity as God’s creatures, even those who have sinned—is sinful behavior on the part of Jesus’ disciples. For example, notice that Jesus didn’t utter one word in today’s gospel about what the leprous man had done and what Mosaic law condemned. That fact was obvious; after all, he was a leper! But, Jesus didn’t allow that fact to keep him from reaching out and touching the leprous man. In “doing this,” Jesus not only violated Mosaic law—thereby committing a sin—but Jesus also violated his culture’s belief that touching a sinner could cause Jesus to contract the dread disease and, then, be judged guilty of sin and banished from the community. Jesus engaged in subversive activity, trespassing beyond the limits of the law as well as his culture’s mores. My question today is “Why?” Might it be that Jesus was thinking that love of God and neighbor required extending the opportunity to sinners to reintegrate themselves into the community? Might it also be that Jesus wanted to teach others that fulfilling the “spirit of the Mosaic law” is more important than fulfilling the “letter of the Mosaic law”? I think the answer to both questions is “Yes” and, in this instance, Jesus demonstrated for all to see that the power of love of God and neighbor is able to accomplish so much more good than the power of human judgment can accomplish. That is, miraculous healings are effected when Jesus’ disciples don’t allow judgments—whether they’ve made them, others have made them, or institutions like governments or churches have made them—to provide his disciples any excuse to neglect their duty to love God and neighbor as they love themselves. If my understanding is accurate, Mark was teaching how Jesus demonstrated that no matter what, being one of his disciples requires doing what love of God and neighbor requires, even if the law or religious or cultural prohibitions forbid it. Now, that’s all nice “in theory.” But, what does it mean “in actual practice” if Jesus’ disciples are to touch a sinner—to bridge the gap separating a saint from a sinner—so that the sinner is reintegrated into the community, especially if doing so is contrary to some civil or religious law or some cultural more? To answer this question, let’s consider what might be termed “figurative lepers,” all of those individuals we know and have labeled as “outcasts,” for some reason or another. These include the nerds, geeks, dorks, and whatever other names we have invented to describe these human beings. But, these figurative lepers also include siblings, children, relatives, in-laws, neighbors, co-workers, and a whole host—a veritable throng—of other people. These are the people we don’t allow to enter into our lives because their faults are so blatantly obvious, or they annoy us so very much, or they have hurt us in the past and haven’t yet come back groveling before us and begging for mercy. As Mark points out, these are the people who also keep showing up and intruding into our lives at the most inconvenient or unwanted of times, especially since we thought (or perhaps, even, hoped) they had disappeared over some remote and dark corner of the earth. At school, in the grocery store, at holiday parties and dinners, on the elevator, or even passing us on the expressway, their very presence is so annoying that it prompts in us feelings of disgust, revilement, hostility, and perhaps even engenders feelings of anger. In sum, these are the figurative lepers we’d rather avoid. More importantly, however, we use the fact of their sin as an excuse to deter us from reaching out and touching them, despite the fact we know from today’s gospel that Jesus didn’t allow those kinds of laws and mores to keep him from reaching out and touching the sinners who kept showing up and intruding into his life. As significant as the miraculous healing in today’s gospel is because it deflects us from contemplating our lives as Jesus’ disciples, what I think is of greater significance for us to contemplate is that none of our judgments and subsequent feelings about all of those figurative lepers seems to have entered into Jesus’ mind. Jesus was so oriented upon loving God and neighbor—fulfilling the “greatest of all the commandments”—that when the “literal leper” showed up and intruded into Jesus’ life, he reached out and touched the sinner. In this way, Jesus affirmed the sinner was a human being who was worthy of dignity, namely, who needed to be made whole, to regain a measure of self-respect, and to feel less alienated. In short, Jesus’ act of reaching out and touching the leper reintegrated him as a human being and as a member of the community. In light of this teaching, I suspect Mark wanted Jesus’ disciples in his day to know that they also possessed the power to heal sinners, to cleanse them of their all-too-obvious sins, and to provide the spiritual remedy they needed. But, “to do this in memory of me,” Mark wanted to teach a more important but difficult spiritual lesson: Jesus’ disciples would have to put aside their personal preferences and desires as well as their feelings and hurts. Jesus’ disciples would only be able to do this if they were motivated by love of God and neighbor. In other words, Mark wanted Jesus’ disciples of his day to recognize that they had to be healed, first, of their all-too-obvious sin, namely, of loving themselves more than they love God or their neighbors. Children’s fairy tales describe how the kiss of a beautiful princess can transform ugly frogs and fearsome beasts into handsome princes. In today’s epistle, St. Paul suggests something less worldly and more spiritual: “Do everything for the glory of God….Give no offense.” As Jesus’ disciples in this generation, when we seek to do everything for the glory of God, we can only “do this” if we, first, love God and neighbor as we love ourselves. In actual practice, we must seek neither our personal advantage nor take offense at what others say and do, which earns them condemnation. But, being concerned solely about the physical and spiritual welfare of these figurative lepers, we imitate both Jesus and St. Paul by reaching out and touching them and offering them the opportunity to be reintegrated as human beings and as members of the community. “If you wish,” all of those figurative lepers are saying to us as they said to Jesus, “you can make me clean.” The challenge Mark presents us in today’s gospel can be asked in the form of a question: Will we reply without hesitation, “I do will it. Be made clean”?
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HOMILY
