Reflection on the Gospel of Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Feb 11 2018.
“The more things change the more they stay the same,” (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr).
I’ve been asked what “relevant” message could be communicated “to the modern world” from scripture? To faithful Catholic Christians, the Marcan narrative instructs the reader on Christ’s divinity and the Power He has over the Laws of nature by healing a debilitating and at the time, an incurable contagious disease. This explanation works for believers as we take the message as “Gospel” but what about our neighbor? If we are to be true disciples of Christ, we must diligently love God above everything and then, love our neighbor as ourselves. Catholic Christian teaching tells us that loving someone means willing their ultimate good, which is the Beatific Vision! St. Paul tells us to “run the race as to win” the unfading crown of eternal life and to help “our neighbor by building up his spirit…according to the Spirit of Christ Jesus,” (Rom 15:-3). What does this mean, if anything, to those who profess a Christian belief and those who don’t? Certainly, the Good News of Jesus applies to all peoples and all times. How do we convince our believing and unbelieving brethren of the Truth we profess and how does “the healing of Leper” apply in a time of advanced medical and empirical science? What does the Eternal Word have to say to the modern day “Publican”, Pharisee, and everything in between in Mark’s Gospel 1:40-45? The responsibility given to all Christians to “glorify God with our lives” by allowing His grace “to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death” is no small matter for those of us who struggle with selfishness but the remedy is ever present in the antidote of the Cross. The remedy is there and no one will be excused from it. The command of Christ to go “and make disciples of all nations” was not a request but a command. In our Westernized Culture dominated by Scientism and Modernism, what could the story be telling us today? It is hard to imagine, in our outwardly “white-washed” “I’m ok; you’re ok” sanitized culture, encountering one “full of leprosy,” (Lk 5:2). We have nearly eradicated the disease in the Westernized world but the leprosy in American society is not a physical ailment but an emotional & spiritual one. In this case, we live in a culture where we walk among many who are indeed full of spiritual and emotional leprosy but “we must have the eyes to see and the ears to hear” what the signs of our time are telling us. Where is the battle ground on where we must “fight the good fight?” What are remedies we must use to ease the disease of our modern day leprosy?
In order to fight a battle, we must first know our enemy. The Saints, due to their union with God and love for neighbor, have a keen eye for human suffering and “reading the signs of the times” with great accuracy and deep reflection. According to St. Mother Teresa, “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” It seems St. Mother Teresa’s observation regarding the plight of the West is not much different than the plight of the Leper in Mark’s gospel. According to the Levitical Law, lepers were to “live apart” separated from society, and the temple, essentially “apart from God.” They were only allowed to camp with others who were considered unclean. If that were not enough, those who were already ailing from a horrific disease, were to purposefully make themselves standout by disheveling their appearance and alert those at a distance with either ringing a bell or yelling, “Unclean, Unclean!” In today’s “compassionate society,” that would be far from “tolerant.”
Today, through inquiry and research, it is estimated that 35% of Americans admit to moderate loneliness and 17% report severe loneliness. Many, for the most part, suffer alone but not in silence. Unlike the leper in the gospels, most who are interiorly ailing do not alert anyone but go unseen and unheard. To say that they suffer in silence is highly inaccurate as they listen to the self-accusing voice crying, “unclean, unclean.” Phrases like, “I’m not smart enough”, “I’m not nice enough”, “I’m not successful enough”, “I’m not man enough,” “I’m not holy enough”, “I’m not…fill in the blank. These self-accusing statements are the soul crushing equivalent to the leper’s, “Unclean, Unclean!” The negative self-talk stemmed from woundedness and shame causes us to hide behind various facades we create for self-protection, hiding us away from vulnerability to ourselves, to others, and God. Some delve into the abundant escapes our sensual and materialistic world has to offer only to find increasing dissatisfaction in the results they provide. According to Rene Brown, “we are the most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in US history.” We have the highest rate of suicide between the ages 15-35. The technological advances bringing about the connected age of globalization has offered many blessing in our lives but a recent Pew Report stated a 10% reduction in “face to face and civic engagement for every hour on the internet surfing or TV watched,” (Vost, p. 152). Clinical psychologist Sherry Tuckle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other observed “increased anxiety over face-to-face conversation and phone conversation among many young people today,” (Turkle, p. 109). She (Turkle) relates stories of the lonely teen who is picked up from school by her mother, only to be ignored the whole trip home by her mother, who remained absorbed in her phone,” (Turkle, p.109). For the sake of time, I will stop here but make no mistake, the list of examples of the leprous infection of apathy, indifference, self-loathing, narcissism, and most importantly willful and unwilful alienation from God has rivaled the plight of the Leper in Mark’s Gospel for the Leper was bold enough to ask for help. He brought his woundedness and shame before Jesus to heal and later bear on the Cross. Today, it seems we have the combination of the leper and the paralytic in one but this is not without hope as “where sin abounds grace abounds all the more.” It is the sick who are in need of the Divine physician and it all start with the healing of each Christian soul called to preach. In order to be our brother’s keeper we must “know ourselves in the Light of Christ” and ask for His Love, Mercy and healing for we cannot give what we do not have.
While reflecting on what to write on the Mass readings, I remembered that we will be reading St. Therese: Story of a Soul. Using her example, Mother Teresa, often cited and performed St. Therese’s, “doing little things with great love” often with “miraculous” results. We live in a the time where formal preaching of Thomistic philosophy, sacred theology, canon law, papal encyclicals, etc are reserved for academia, Conferences, After-Mass Church activities and meetings like this. How do I know this? I have been told by several people, including family. Experiences standing in line (anywhere), waiting for my tires, work luncheons, waiting for my to-go order, etc has shown me deep discussions on Catholic Spirituality and evangelization are necessary but prudence on situational awareness is of utmost importance. In the general public, formalities in evangelization are not the best and have been told so. In a long conversation about, scripture, life, and family, my sweet little brother gave a very eye opening fraternal correction. Basically, “you have always been smart and sound intelligent but no one hears what you are saying. Take it down and listen to us rather than talk at us.” Ouch! Months later, taking a class on Ignatian discernment of spirits, I relatively heard the same thing my brother said, which is basically “listen and stop trying to save and fix people” that is God’s business. Another time, a man with leukemia said to me “how do you expect to help a drowning man if you are drowning yourself?” If I am inundated with spiritual leprosy, I must come to the Lord, humble myself, and ask “Him to make me clean;” then, get out of His way, take His hand and allow Him to “guide me on His path, His Way” as the Christian needs no other wisdom than Christ’s.” (A Monk, p.74).
So, what do we do to heal our culture from the emotional and spiritual leprosy of our day and age. What I learned from humble and experienced folks are this. Listen and listen in prayer. This is very important and the most problematic for many people. In a discussion, a man admitted to me that he was an atheist. Being an atheist of his atheism, I didn’t listen or believe him, which rendered the conversation useless because I was unable to meet him where he was. As a candidate to the Lay Dominicans, we are to “be aware of the signs of our times,” making “the presence of Christ alive” (Curtis and Woods, p. 62) at all times to all people. The old phrase “what would Jesus do” might be cliché but is still profound. Like St. Dominic, Christian Catholics, particularly Dominicans, are to immerse themselves in prayer and the study of the gospels in order to know “what our Lord would do.” Many times it was His presence that captivated people and this was also made manifest in His saints. As St. Francis once said, “preach the gospel. If necessary use words.” From my experience this is the approach we should use in the day-to-day monotonous grind of our state in life. Like St. Therese said, “Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them,” (St. Therese). To Drive home this point of doing little things with great love, I will leave you with this true life story.
A few days ago I was listening to a lecture by a Dominican priest by the name of Fr. Brown. In his presentation on “connectivity” he began his lecture with a heartbreaking story of a man by the name of John Kevin Hines. The young man was born early to drug addicted bipolar parents and was later adopted by a loving couple by the name Patrick and Debra Hines, who later divorced. As he reached his late teens, he did well in athletics but suffered from a mental leprosy, bi-polar disorder axis 1 with psychotic features. On September 24, 2000, he made the choice to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. He described the day as one of ambivalence and social apathy due to the indifference of his fellow man. While he sat on the crowded bus that would take him to the bridge, he sobbed but no one asked him if he was ok. The bus arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge destination and John Hines slowly made his way off the bus sobbing. He stopped before getting off to dry his face and the bus driver said, “Hey kid, you want to hurry up. I have a route to finish.” The young man got off the bus swirling with the “voices telling him he must die” while thinking “how much he wanted to live but can’t.” He began to sob again with pervading thoughts that no one cares. In the last moments, he thought if one person, shows that they care, he will not jump. The moment came! Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to the person with tear drenched hopeful eyes only to be met with more indifference. Handing Mr. Hines a camera, the man asked if he would take a picture of him and his family. John Hines turned away from the tourist and threw himself of the Golden Gate Bridge falling 200 ft. By the grace of God, John Hines survived the jump and has been telling his story across the country to a vast and attentive audience who are privy to the social leprosy many face today. Yes, I thought this was an extreme case but unfortunately, it is not. Listening to this story gave me a sense of helplessness but as mentioned before, “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” Mr Hines, like others who have similar stories, gave us the remedy and it is love! He said, “I’m not asking anyone to be responsible for my happiness and I am not asking anyone to take care of me!” BUT, “if you see someone who is obviously distraught and in pain, take the time to ask them, ‘are you ok?’ ‘Can I help you?’” Just the touch on the shoulder from the indifferent tourist gave him hope. No one even looked at him and if they did, they ran from him as the Jews ran from the Leper in Mark’s gospel. Herein lies, where the little things with great love will go a long way. As St. Mother Teresa’s of Calcutta said the West has a hunger for love. It has a hunger for God. Love is the remedy and can begin with something small but worth an emotional and spiritual fortune. It can start off with a smile as St Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “If someone does not have a smile, give them yours.” So, smile it could save someone’s life!
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Chapter 