Category Archives: Ordinary Time

What does it mean to be treated as an outcast or to be ostracised from society? Have you ever experienced being treated as an outcast, ostracised or excluded from a group, a community or even from society? Many of us may have had the privilege of not having to experience such a thing, but there are some who go through this ordeal daily. Such people are treated this way due to a number of reasons: a person could have committed a crime so heinous or horrible that the person is locked away from others for the so called good of society; or a person could be infected with an extremely contagious or dangerous disease, that it is safer and better for such a person to be separated from others to avoid any further infection to others around the person or even to avoid an epidemic. One such disease which could cause a person to be ostracised is leprosy.

Most of us yearn for a good, happy and healthy relationship and companionship with our friends, our family and our loved ones. However, if one is stricken with leprosy, such a relationship and companionship may not be possible so long as the disease is still existing with the person. Leprosy is curable with the help of modern medicine, and people infected with the disease and are on proper medication could live a normal lifestyle. However, lepers in ancient times, including those during the time of Jesus, were not so lucky. Fear and prejudice led them to being treated with contempt and scorn as some people wrongly thought that they had become lepers because they had committed some great sin. Some lepers may even have felt isolated from God as they could not attend the synagogue services or visit the Temple at Jerusalem. Thus, the only company that they would have had would have been with other lepers.

The leper in today’s Gospel could have felt tremendous emotional and physical pain due to his condition. He would have had to live away from others, as the first reading tells us: “The man is leprous: he is unclean. The priest must declare him unclean; he is suffering from leprosy of the head. A man infected with leprosy must wear his clothing torn and his hair disordered; he must shield his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” As long as the disease lasts he must be unclean; and therefore he must live apart: he must live outside the camp.” Can you imagine being called “unclean”? What a demeaning or insulting title! But that was what this leper had to go through. In desperation, he hoped that Jesus would cure him and release him from his predicament. And that is exactly what Jesus did; He cured the leper and gave him back his freedom: the man could come out of his isolation and be reunited with his loved ones and with society. The cured man could have been so delighted and excited about being cured, that he defied Jesus’ stern order: “Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.” Instead, he started telling everyone about Jesus.

Today, we have many “lepers” in our midst. Do we know who they are? Have we thought about how we can bring Jesus’ healing presence to them? These “lepers” may not necessarily be suffering from leprosy, but they may be suffering a similar fate like lepers because of a number of reasons: they could be isolated, lonely and confined to their homes due to sickness or old age; they could be rejected by society due to prejudice and fear because they are suffering from some infectious disease or from some perceive as a dangerous and contagious disease or even from AIDS; they could have isolated themselves because of grief or poor self-esteem; or they could be migrants or even others suffering from ridicule or isolation due to language difficulties, prejudice and poverty. As Christians, we need to come out of our comfort zones, our pride and prejudice, and our fear, and reach out to these many “lepers” around us. Let us bring Jesus to them, and do our part in showing them God’s compassion, love, and mercy.

What is your purpose in life? Have you even wondered why you are here on this earth? Why are you working in a particular job or performing certain tasks? Are the things we are doing, sometimes routine tasks, all there is to life? Some may feel as if life is becoming more and more of a drudgery, and they feel more and more disillusioned and tired of doing the same things over and over again. Those who feel this way may identify with Job in today’s first reading, where he lamented: “Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his time no better than hired drudgery?” The danger we have to watch out for is when we allow ourselves to begin to feel as if our lives no longer have any purpose and any direction. When we allow ourselves to feel this way, some of us may begin to contemplate suicide, thinking that life is no longer worth living, has no purpose, and there seems to be no more reason for us to carry on.

However, today’s readings actually give us a significant reason and purpose for living; and that purpose is God. We live because we believe in God and seek to maintain a close relationship with Him: in good times or in bad, in all that we do, in our efforts to do good and avoid evil; all these mean something special and matter only because we believe that God will be our providence and guide. In the Gospel, Jesus could have easily been carried away with doing wonderful work and helping so many people. He could have been tempted to continue doing this good work with the excuse that he was doing it out of love and compassion for the people. But was this God’s will? No. Jesus was aware that his mission was to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God to other neighbouring country towns also, not just settle down at one place. What He wanted to do personally wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was the will of God: and that is to preach the kingdom of God and to glorify God. Likewise, St. Paul knew of his life purpose to preach the gospel, as he tells us in the secong reading: “I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands.” This too is our mission and our purpose in life, that is: in all things, to glorify God.

Some of us think that the devil would tempt us into doing something which is bad or evil. However, this is not always the case. The devil could also tempt us into doing something which seems good, and when we do so, some of us may begin to think that without us, the task at hand would collapse. We begin to do things for our own personal gratification, for our own popularity, to feed our ego. We begin to drift away from our true purpose: that is to preach the Good News and to glorify God in all we do. We become more concerned with what others think of us; and so we do things that we hope would make them like us. We become more concerned with what makes us happy, even though that happiness is only temporary; whether it be riches, popularity or power. If our life purpose is based on these factors rather than God, we will soon find ourselves disillusioned and tired.

Thus, let us always remember that we have a purpose in life, and that is to preach the Good News and to glorify God. Let us continue to strive towards building God’s Kingdom and not our own, as we beseech God to help and guide us; as we hear the words of the “collect” or opening prayer: “Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection.”

In ancient times, we read of emperors and kings who claim to have a mandate or the authority from heaven to rule their subjects. Some of these emperors and kings even believed that they were actually divine, or that they were descendants of the divine (even if they believed they were somewhat divine was good enough for them), or that they had received a divine message or confirmation to support their right and privileges as a ruler. Few people questioned whether these emperors and kings were genuine in their claims, but in hindsight, we could discover that such claims are questionable.

But what do we mean when we speak of authority? When we speak about authority, we are talking about the power a person has received, usually through a voting process, though at times, such powers could have been seized with the support of the military or through some other means. Such persons would then have the power to determine the actions of another person or a group of people. Society creates laws to protect its citizen and then gives authority to certain people such as the police or in some cases the military to enforce these laws. In general, authority is intimately connected with its source and such authority is temporary and subject to review and possible change or even to be discarded when it no longer serves its purpose.

However, today’s Gospel tells us of a different kind of authority. Such authority comes from God, since we believe Jesus is the Son of God. In today’s Gospel, the people were amazed because they had never experienced someone speaking with such authority. This authority would never be removed from Jesus because Jesus was intimately united to His Father, the source of the authority. Likewise, we share in the authority of the Lord if we are united to the source of this authority. God can remove this authority if we refuse to stay intimately united to him. God has entrusted us with his authority only to the extent that we allow him into our lives. This is why, in today’s reading, we are warned: “The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, shall be held answerable to me for it. But the prophet who presumes to say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” In other words, we should not play play with the authority God has given us, for such authority is not meant for our personal gratification or benefit, but to do His will and to glorify His name.

Today, as we look back at our history, we are reminded of the many instances where authority has been misused or abused. We are also reminded of the many examples of proper use of authority. Have we who have been given authority, either from sources on earth, or from the divine, used such authority wisely and justly for the benefit of all and for the greater glory of God?