JESUS EVEN TOUCHES OUR LEPROUS BODIES
Greeting (cf. Second Reading)
Whatever you do,
do it for the glory of God.
Try to be helpful to anyone
for the advantage of others.
Take Christ for your model.
The Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. R/ And with your spirit.
Introduction
Are Some People to Be Shunned?
The message of today is that the Lord Jesus touched with his healing power even the untouchable. Today let each of us reflect how often in life Jesus has touched us. He touched us with his love in baptism when he saved us from our isolation and gave us the Christian community to live in. He touched us each time he came to us in the Eucharist to speak to us and give us his body. He touches us often with his healing forgiveness, with his consolation in moments of distress, with his strength when we are timid, with his wisdom when we are confused. But do we let him touch us? And do we touch one another with healing care?
Penitential Act
Too often we have remained indifferent
when the Lord touched us with his healing power.
Let us ask the Lord to forgive us.
(pause)
Lord Jesus, you said to us:
‘‘Of course, I want you to be healed”
when you touched us with your forgiving hand.
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you said to us:
‘‘Of course, I want you to be healed,”
but we did not let you touch and change our heart.
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you said to us:
‘‘Of course, I want you to be healed,”
but we have not healed one another.
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Lay your healing hand on us, Lord,
and heal us from the contagion of sin.
Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that, like the Lord Jesus,
we may not reject anyone as an outcast
(pause)
God our Father,
you let your Son Jesus Christ
share the lot of outcasts
and bear the sufferings of all.
Let us become like him,
so that among us no one stays an outcast,
no sin remains unforgivable,
no misery is a cause for rejection.
Make us with your Son
people who lift up the despised
with words of welcome
and deeds of encouragement.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
First Reading: Pure before God
In the Old Testament, people were so concerned about outward purity that in their zeal they excluded people with serious skin infections from the worshipping community. Christ insists rather on interior purity.
1 Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants. If the man is leprous and unclean, the priest shall declare him unclean by reason of the sore on his head. “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.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile. R.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin. R.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart. R.
Second Reading: Give No Offense to Anyone
Paul insists that Christ has set people free from the excessive regulations of the Old Law. Christians should let charity prevail where some do not yet understand this freedom.
1 Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31—11:1
Brothers and sisters, 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. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Alleluia: Luke 7:16
Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst,
God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Jesus Touched the Leper and Healed Him
For Jesus, lepers – and sinners – are no longer outcasts but persons to be loved and to be restored in the love of God to the community.
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
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 man sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
Commentary:
Lepers were the marginalized people of their time. The physical disease of leprosy is more or less under control now, but we need not imagine that there are no longer any ‘lepers’ in the world. There is probably no country in the world without its marginalized people. Anything can become a basis for discrimination: race, religion, culture, language…. Constitutions usually proclaim loftily that all citizens are cherished equally, but no law or Constitution can radically change people. In the midst of the rampaging terrorist Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, the Government of Buhari is accused of placing more value on cows over and above Nigerian citizens.
However, as a recent writer put it, “We fill our pavements with a tattered mass of misfits, rejects and outcasts, those society has ostracized and disclaims responsibility for…. Flaunting all the laws and conventions of his society, Christ stretched out his hand and touched the leper. His touch was contagious. The leper was cured.” A nice inversion! We usually think that only disease is contagious. But the greatest contagion is love! (The word comes from tangere, ‘to touch’.)
The technological world is computerized and robotic. We touch our remote control buttons, phones and pads more than our friends, children, wives and husbands. Jesus could have healed the leper by mere word of mouth. But he chose to TOUCH him. There is something in a lovely, Christian touch. It soothes, it heals.
We must bring the healing touch of Jesus to the community and restore those ostracized by our religiosity back to the family of God, redeemed by Christ’s blood.
So, hold somebody! Tell him that you love him! Lift your hands together and praise the Lord!
Intercessions
Let us thank the Lord Jesus for the healing he brings to people and let us recommend to him all people in need and misery. Let us say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
– With all who still seek pardon and reconciliation, we cry out to you, Lord. With all who have found forgiveness, we praise you, Lord, as we say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
– With all the lepers in their body or their heart, we cry out to you, Lord. With all who live with them and help them, we praise you, Lord, as we say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
– With all who are rejected by their communities we cry out to you, Lord. With all who accept people and restore their dignity, we pray you, Lord, as we say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
– With all who wail day and night in their loneliness and misery, we cry out to you, Lord. With those who have found friends to help, we praise you, Lord, as we say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
– With all who hide their suffering, we cry out to you, Lord. With all who share with others and uplift them, we praise you, Lord, as we say:
R/ Lord, touch us with your healing love.
Jesus our Lord, in you people could experience how near God wants to be to people. Let us bring your welcome and peace to all our brothers and sisters. Be with us, Lord, now and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Merciful Father,
with bread and wine we remember
how you have raised us up
above our guilt and fears and isolation
through Jesus Christ your Son.
Dispose us to share with all
your joy, your acceptance and affection
on account of him who shared our poverty
and made himself weak and humble with us,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Our merciful Father in heaven has called all through Jesus, his Son, to be one, without discrimination or favoritism, for he loves all. Let us give him our praise and thanks.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
With Jesus our Lord, let us pray
to the Father of all,
who lets the sun shine
on the good and the weak alike: R/ Our Father…
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and grant us the peace and joy
to live together in unity and peace.
Keep us from refusing to say
the words of welcome and encouragement
that warm the hearts of our brothers and sisters.
Help us to go with them the way to you
and to share your strength with them,
that we may prepare with growing hope
the full coming among us
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom…
Invitation to Communion
Come and share the table of the Lord.
This bread that we have broken
is destined for all,
for the Lord is the life of all his people.
As he did not exclude anyone,
let us learn to share each other’s lives,
in joys and sorrows, in riches and poverty,
in sickness and in health.
For this is the Lord among us. R/ Lord, I am not worthy…
Prayer after Communion
Loving, merciful Father,
at the table of your Son we have learned
to be present to one another
as he has been present to us here.
Let this Eucharist inspire us
with a love that is discreet and reviving
like a breath of fresh air.
On account of him who has taken away
the hardness of our hearts,
dispose us to share our riches and our poverty,
but also to receive one another and from each other.
the hardness of our hearts,
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
How very happy our community would be
if we could fully accept one another
just as we are, without condemning,
without judging or begrudging,
without looking down on anyone,
without trying to create one another
into our own image and likeness.
Let us, rather, build up one another
in the image of Christ;
Remain alive in our communities,
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us go with one another the way of the Lord, bringing healing to each other.
R/ Thanks be to God.