"Christ has no body now on earth but yours"

Mk 1: 40-45

There must be no greater pain of the soul than the pain of rejection and alienation. Unfortunately in Old Testament times, this was the experience of those affected with the disease of leprosy. Apart from the physical sufferings which had to be endured, they also carried the terrible feeling of isolation. Lepers at the time of Christ were forbidden to enter any dwelling, and if anyone approached they had to cry 'Unclean, unclean!' (Lev. 13:45-46). But it is into this very isolation that Jesus enters. Incredibly, to bring help to these outcasts of society, Jesus will himself become an outcast.

In today's Gospel we see Jesus approached by a leper. Despite the laws which forbid contact with others, the man pleads with Jesus to be healed of his affliction. He believes that nothing (even leprosy), can stop him from coming to this special man from Nazareth. The man’s faith is rewarded, and Jesus with a compassionate word and a touch, heals the man. For Jesus, compassion is regarded as more important than the ritual prohibitions against contact with the diseased. Yet, complying with the law, he tells the man to go to the priest and make the stipulated offering.

So how can this Sunday’s Gospel speak to us in our lives?

I believe if we look truthfully into our hearts, we can recognise that tendency to alienate certain people from our lives. Such people may not necessarily be physically afflicted (like the leper of our Gospel), yet for whatever reason have become outcasts. There may be for example, certain people whom we resent: people who have hurt us and whom we still find difficult to forgive. There may be certain individuals who (for whatever reason), we fear; those whom we feel safer not to approach. There may be those whom (because of social standing), we tend to avoid.

My dear young friends, we must realise that everything changes with Christ! As his followers, we are called to carry that same compassionate love for people…even for those for whom we may struggle with or find difficult to approach. There can be no discrimination, i.e. against the poor, against those despised or rejected by society, the marginalized etc.  It is through the Church (whose body we are), that Jesus continues to reach out and heal his people today. And this he does this through people like you and me.

Let us bring our reflection to a close with those special words of St. Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the earth. Yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.”

Fr. John Egan SCA