Feb. 15, 2015: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Click to hear Audio Homily
Would you say you are comfortable visiting the sick or going up to a homeless person to make an eye contact? Most of us are uncomfortable when we encounter the sick and the poor. We may write a check to a charity that helps the poor, but we do not want physical contact with a homeless person. We may send a text or an email to the sick, but can’t bring ourselves to visit them. Whereas we avoid uncomfortable physical contact with the poor and the sick, we love it when a family member or close friend offers a reassuring pat on the back or a gentle squeeze of the hand when troubled. We feel honored when someone important shakes our hand.
If you were offered a $1,000 to touch a person with leprosy, would you? When Mother Teresa was asked that question, she replied, "No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand dollars." But she added, "Yet I willingly care for him for the love of God." She said, “We have medicine for people with diseases such as leprosy. But these medicine do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted. That’s what my sisters hope to provide...The feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty of all.”
Physical contact is precisely what gives people, especially sick and wounded people, a sense of acceptance. By the very act of touching another person we accept that person exactly as he or she is. Physical touch bridges the gap of loneliness that exists in our hearts. We can learn a thing or two from Jesus, because he touched lepers, sinners, sick people and the dead.
That small gesture of the touch by Jesus meant the world to the leper. He felt he was a human being after all. Although the leper’s body was horribly wounded by the disease, his spirit was even more deeply wounded--by the sense of having been rejected. More often our own self-rejection is even more painful and debilitating.
Kindness is almost as important to a sick person as medicine. It’s amazing what people can do for people. People can rekindle hope, bring back the zest for living, and restore self-respect by small gestures of kindness. In kindness, people can mirror the compassion of God. Lent begins this Wednesday. Let’s ponder not only what we can abstain from, but also what gestures of light we can bring to another person by our acts of mercy--in action, in word, and in prayer. This Lent, let us strive for a permanent change that goes beyond the 40 days.
Fr. Paul Yi
Would you say you are comfortable visiting the sick or going up to a homeless person to make an eye contact? Most of us are uncomfortable when we encounter the sick and the poor. We may write a check to a charity that helps the poor, but we do not want physical contact with a homeless person. We may send a text or an email to the sick, but can’t bring ourselves to visit them. Whereas we avoid uncomfortable physical contact with the poor and the sick, we love it when a family member or close friend offers a reassuring pat on the back or a gentle squeeze of the hand when troubled. We feel honored when someone important shakes our hand.
If you were offered a $1,000 to touch a person with leprosy, would you? When Mother Teresa was asked that question, she replied, "No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand dollars." But she added, "Yet I willingly care for him for the love of God." She said, “We have medicine for people with diseases such as leprosy. But these medicine do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted. That’s what my sisters hope to provide...The feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty of all.”
Physical contact is precisely what gives people, especially sick and wounded people, a sense of acceptance. By the very act of touching another person we accept that person exactly as he or she is. Physical touch bridges the gap of loneliness that exists in our hearts. We can learn a thing or two from Jesus, because he touched lepers, sinners, sick people and the dead.
That small gesture of the touch by Jesus meant the world to the leper. He felt he was a human being after all. Although the leper’s body was horribly wounded by the disease, his spirit was even more deeply wounded--by the sense of having been rejected. More often our own self-rejection is even more painful and debilitating.
Kindness is almost as important to a sick person as medicine. It’s amazing what people can do for people. People can rekindle hope, bring back the zest for living, and restore self-respect by small gestures of kindness. In kindness, people can mirror the compassion of God. Lent begins this Wednesday. Let’s ponder not only what we can abstain from, but also what gestures of light we can bring to another person by our acts of mercy--in action, in word, and in prayer. This Lent, let us strive for a permanent change that goes beyond the 40 days.
Fr. Paul Yi
