HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B (1)

HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: “A LEPER CAME TO JESUS AND, KNEELING, SAID TO HIM, ‘IF YOU CHOOSE, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN.’ MOVED WITH PITY, JESUS STRETCHED OUT HIS HAND AND TOUCHED HIM, AND SAID TO HIM, ‘I DO CHOOSE. BE MADE CLEAN!’” (Mark 1:40-41)

BY: Fr. Robert deLeon, CSC

 

HOMILY:

“A 90-year-old [Maine] woman grabbed a bobcat by the tail to free her beloved pet cat from the wildcat's mouth. Mildred Luce, who lives alone, said the action began one recent day when she looked outside her window and saw the bobcat lying on its side with the head of her 20-year-old cat, Smudge, in its mouth. Luce ran out the door, grabbed an aluminum snow shovel and pushed it down on the bobcat's neck. But it held on tight. ‘Then I took hold of its head with my hand and pulled on its tail, and Smudge popped out,’ she said. Smudge hightailed into the house with the bobcat hot on her heels. Once inside, the wildcat calmed down and appeared more bewildered than aggressive, wandering from room to room before walking into the bathroom. A neighbor whom Luce had called for help secured the door until Warden Mark Rollins arrived and snared the animal as it hid behind a shower curtain. Luce never had a second thought about coming to the rescue of Smudge, who is still on the mend. ‘I had no fear of it; I was just interested in saving Smudge,’ she said.” (Associated Press, April 20, 2005)

Mildred Luce knew well that you’ve got to be willing to touch evil in order to conquer it. You’ve got to believe that you have it in you to defeat the darkness. It was with this faith and determination that Smudge’s life was saved. In the gospel passage we hear today, we find, perhaps, the very source of Mildred’s strength, the example of Jesus willing to touch what was thought to be enfleshed evil—leprosy—and, in doing so, effecting healing. St. Mark relates, “A leper came to Jesus and, kneeling, said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’” (Mark 1:40-41) So simple; so bold: goodness reaching out to lay its hand upon evil. And, as the gospel passage continues, the leper was immediately cured.

What about us? Would we have the gumption to do what Mildred did? While we may never need wrestle a bobcat, indeed there is far worse evil in our backyards, something even more insidious than the leprosy recorded in the gospel. Our culture abounds in social evils that are so pervasive that one wonders if there can ever be a cure for what ails us. Yet, as Mildred Luce reminds us, one must be unafraid to reach out and engage evil, calling it by name, laying one’s hand upon its head. And when the committed Christian does just this, one’s touch becomes God’s touch.

In our own day, those cast aside or abandoned by society, no less shunned than biblical lepers, continue to find healing in those who, after the example of Jesus, reach out to lay a hand upon the sick, the suffering, the desperate and the desolate. And that bold touch becomes God’s touch, a simple human encounter uniting earth’s need with heaven’s bounty.

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