6th Sunday Ordinary Time Homily Safety and Risk: God's love

Humans want to feel safe. We want to feel safe. It is natural for us.  What makes us feel safe, well….that is the question.

I think quite a few people seek safety in certainties and absolutes. We like life clear and concise. It is this way nor not this way.  People are good or bad. You are either with me or against me; my friend or enemy. Catholics are only this way, not that way.

Ok, but that really is not how the world operates. And, we wonder why there seems to be so many divisions among us.

Scripture contains a lot of tension for us. Sacred Scripture does not deal with much that is clear, concise or absolute. Very few is clear throughout, such as that God will love us no matter what. This will never ever change.  Scripture contains conflicts and contradictions. Scripture contains a lot of gray; can be ambiguous in how we experience that divine love. It is within that ambiguity, that gray space, we find our path forward to engage in living.  The Hebrew people, as they formed themselves and were formed by God, had the mission as God’s chosen people. As God’s chosen people they were to live in harmony with God and thus show to the rest of the world what that harmony can do. They would attract others to live in that same harmony. As God’s chosen people, they were to be an example unto all the nations.

There is a tension in that first reading, from Leviticus, one of the books of the Torah. How do a people, who are supposed to reflect God’s love, deal with people who are ill and contagious?

Love of neighbor would say these people must be cared for. But without medicines or an understanding of how diseases spread the tension was how to keep the greater community safe from the illness

Isolation becomes the seeming answer.

Now, this selection we have today leaves out a LOT. In between verses 2 and 42 were a LOT of qualifications, such that a total isolation was more of a last resort for the more serious illnesses. I recommend reading, but NOT before or after eating.  

The tension again “how to show love for the one, and yet keep others safe?” Sound familiar? We have spent the last year struggling with this.  We isolated ourselves from others. We isolated the sick to protect others. We isolated elderly to protect them. We tended to be absolute about it as well. It seemed a lot of hand wringing happened; internal debates on what truly is the right course and how do we decide.

But also our history in the United States has been a church in which we isolated ourselves from the wider community. We felt threatened by the others. Some of you can remember the days when it was not permitted Catholics to enter a Protestant church. Others feared us as Catholics, thinking that Rome dictated to us. We were suspect, so keep them from political office.  It is only in the past 50 years that we have become to feel a degree safer. Yet, we often retain that fear of the other.  And now that we have become mainstreamed, some fear the immigrant: “they will change us! Send them away, keep them away, let them have their own church. Isolate them from us!”

Jesus’ actions in our gospel give us an insight, a pathway.

Right away we are confronted with someone who has not obeyed the law. He approaches Jesus, with humility, but nonetheless approaches Jesus. He was not to do this as a “leper”.  Yet, he hopes for healing, and more than healing, a restoration to community. He hopes for an escape from his isolation. He took the risk to violate the law, and in effect what did have to lose.  Look at Jesus’ response to the man’s pleas “I do will it.” He does not hurl accusations against the man for breaking rules and protocols. Jesus does not send him away. Jesus does not run away. He remains present to the man and his wish. Jesus wills it.  Jesus simply does not will the healing of the disease, Jesus wills the restoration to community. Jesus wills it because the Father wills it as well.

The Father’s will is that all be one: that is absolute.  

Think back to other Jesus’ healing stories. People were returned back to families, to their communities; no longer isolated.  The man is healed, and how do we know he is restored to the comunity? He blabs the Good news to everyone. People do not flee from him because he is a leper, they remain in his presence and he spreads the Good News.

People hurt in our community, in our parish; this is beyond COVID. People can experience isolation for many reasons. They can themselves feel unwelcome, and made to feel unwelcome.  And one reason can be the rest of us keep them away, for many reasons; most not good. We will often do this to feel “safe” because the other is different, the other is new; the other challenges us to think and act differently.

We, as the Body of Christ, are called to be a force for healing.  We are to be an example to all the nations.  We as the Body of Christ stand with those who are excluded; to hear them, see them, and to will them to be included.

What do the signs say above the entryways in our building?  They say “Welcome.” Do the hurting find welcome here, will they find it? Do we will that they find it?  

The absolute of life: God Loves us no matter what. Jesus showed this in the resurrection.  This becomes our safety; God infinite and eternal love for us. When we know that there is nothing we can do to lose that love, we can take the risk to love as well; take the risk to venture from our safety zones and welcome, heal...

We can take the risk to be with those who may scare us, but nonetheless are loved by God as well.  We can welcome those who speak a different language, look differently; believe differently. We can go out to those in need and listen.

Think of our own history; Jesus never sought safety, He sought us.  Paul never sought safety, but with faith in Christ, took amazing risks.  Sts. Cyril and Methodius, brothers, took the risk to leave home and went to Eastern Europe to bring the faith to those people. We celebrate these saints on Feb 14th, and we Slavic people come from that risk.

What will we risk?