02.13.2021 Homily

Once again, in today's gospel passage, Jesus heals. He banishes suffering and pain. He repairs what is broken. He revives what is dead. This is the manner that strongly characterizes his entire ministry, his direct and immediate connection with human beings. He seems to connect more with those who are in trouble, than with those who have it all put together.

Have you ever wondered where all that pain and all that suffering went? When healing took place, where did the illness go? When crutches were thrown away, did Jesus limp down after the running cripple? Were Jesus' eyes made dim when Bartimaeus saw? Did life ebb in him when it flowed in Lazarus? When the leper leapt in new flesh, did scales appear on the back of Jesus' hands?

The gospel tells us that Jesus felt power going out from him. And yet the gospels failed to remind us or tell us where that pain went. Did the son of God take upon himself the ungrowing legs and the dead eyes of those who were ill? The leper's self image is that he is beyond human and divine concern, his uncleanliness means that neither God nor the people will remain close to him. Jesus' inner compassion for this isolated human being moves him to reach out and to touch him. And so welcome him back into the circle of human life. This cleansing reveals God's outreach to the outcast, which is more important in Jesus' mission than celebrating the divine power to cure a physical malady.

Jesus remains close. He remains intimate with those who have trouble, who are in pain and who suffer. He takes upon himself their suffering. Just as Paul says he took upon himself the burden of our sin, so he takes upon himself the burden of our illness, our malady, our suffering, our loss.

As we come together today and as we pray, we pray in gratitude to a Lord who is so close to us and so involved with us that there is literally nothing about what we experience that does not move into him.