Reaching those at the margins
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 him 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.
Have you ever heard of St. Damien
of Molokai, also known as the “leper priest”?
He has an amazing story, so amazing that they even made a movie of
it. In 1873 he volunteered to work on
the Hawaiian island of Molokai, which was a leper colony. He built hospitals, clinics, churches and
some 600 coffins for those who died of leprosy.
12 years later, in 1885, he contracted leprosy himself and died that
same year. You may have heard that part
of the story, but here’s something you probably don’t know.
Shortly after Damien died, a
Presbyterian minister named Rev. Hyde wrote a scathing criticism of Damien and
his work on Molokai. Damien, however,
was defended by the famous writer Robert Lewis Stevenson; that would be like
John Grisham coming to your defense or writing your eulogy! Stevenson’s rebuttal of Rev. Hyde is so
eloquent, I want to share a portion of it, even though it’s a little long. He wrote to Hyde: “But sir, we have failed, and
another has succeeded; we have stood by, and another has stepped in; we sit and
grow bulky in our charming mansions, and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into
the battle, under the eyes of God, and succors the afflicted, and consoles the
dying, and is himself afflicted in his turn and dies up on the field of honor.” Then, Stevenson concludes: “If that world at
all remember you, on the day when Damien shall be named a saint (which would
happen 100 year later), it will be in virtue of [your] one work: your letter
[criticizing Damien].” In other words,
you’ll go down in history as just “that guy” who complained about a saint.
Don’t be “that guy.” You see, saints
always seek those who sit at the margins of society, like lepers, and they even
give a footnote in history to their detractors, like Rev. Hyde.
This is
exactly what Jesus does in the gospel today as he seeks those segregated by
society. A leper approaches Jesus and
requests that he heal him. But did you
notice how Jesus healed the man? He did
exactly what he should NOT have done: he touched him. In the first reading from Leviticus, Moses
expressly tells the people that lepers should be expelled from the camp and
never touched. But Jesus comes precisely
to seek the lost and the lonely, the ostracized and the outcasts, those who
live on the fringes and those who are forgotten. And when Jesus touched the leper, he didn’t
just remove his uncleanness, he also brought him back from the margins into the
heart of society, like St. Damien touched the lepers of Molokai and made them
feel loved and accepted.
Last week someone sent me this little
joke. A lawyer, a doctor and a priest
went hunting together. They came upon a
big buck and all three of them shot simultaneously. The buck dropped dead and the three men
rushed to see who shot it. They noticed there
was only one bullet hole, and started arguing about who hit it. A few minutes later the game officer came by
and asked what the problem was. The
doctor explained the reason for the debate.
The officer took one look at the deer and said with complete confidence:
“It was the pastor who shot the buck!”
They asked, “How do you know that?”
He said, “Easy. The bullet went
in one ear and other the other.” But do
you know why some Sunday sermons go in one ear and other the other? I believe it’s when we priests, like
Stevenson said, “sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions while plain,
uncouth peasants step into the battle.”
In other words, sermons go stale when we priests don’t practice what we
preach, and seek those at the margins of society. You see, soul stirring sermons are only given
by saintly pastors who care for the most “unclean” in their congregations.
My friends, we cannot all go to
Molokai and work with lepers to make them feel accepted, but there are people
at the edges of our lives, and we can reach out to them. There’s no better example of this than Pope
Francis. He’s constantly calling
Catholics to seek those at the “peripheries” (the edges, the margins) – the
refugees and immigrants, the homosexuals, the divorced and remarried, the
mentally ill and those in prison. Aren’t
these people the modern-day "lepers" who live “outside the camp” and
whom we feel dare not touch? But they are
precisely the people who merit our special attention and love. There may be people in our own circle of
family and friends whom we’ve pushed to the edges of our hearts. Sometimes, those who are farthest from our
hearts, live under the same roof. Pray
for them at this Mass, and find a way to reach out to them today. And by the way, may I sincerely apologize if
there’s anyone in this parish who feels I’ve ignored or neglected them? No one should feel they are on the
peripheries of Immaculate Conception Church, but rather at the heart of this
parish community, and in the heart of this pastor.
You know, in the end we only have
two options in life; there are only two kinds of people in the world. We can either be like the saints and seek
those segregated by society, or we can be like “that guy” who complains about
and criticizes the saints. Don’t be
“that guy.” But, don’t worry, even if
you are “that guy,” you will still get a footnote in the history books.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
