“Stretched
out his hand…”
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, cures a leper
by the healing touch of his hand. A leper was completely out-casted from
society, and still today there are many people in our own society who are
completely alienated and stigmatised. Jesus
is moved with pity for this man. What moves you with pity? Who do you pity? What
alienates you from others? Who is alienated in our communities? Who is it that we need to reach out to? Jesus’ ‘pity’
also conveys anger at the leper’s situation. Jesus sends the man to the
priests, as a testimony to them. It is the religious of Jesus’ time who have alienated
this man. What they are incapable of doing, Jesus has done by ‘stretching out
his hand’ in love.
Jesus, in Mark’s Gospel, is forever
asking people to keep quiet and not tell anyone about what he does. Yet, after
such a radical encounter with God which frees this man from all that keeps him
trapped, of course he would be shouting from the roof tops. Why would Jesus want his miracles to be kept a
secret? Jesus wants to be able to fulfil his mission without attracting the
wrong kind of attention. Eventually those who are against him will compile
evidence but, for now, the less they know the better. We might think today of those who bravely
speak out, even if it means they are punished in some way. May all of us have
the courage, like the man who is healed in the Gospel today, to proclaim the
truth, even if it costs us.
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