He stretched and touched us

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

These are strange times. I would occasionally venture out of the church compound to do my grocery shopping and would notice this frequent phenomenon - people actively moving away from me as I passed. I see people wearing masks and wiping off surfaces that other people may have touched. Apart from certain stores, everything else is closed. No one wants to be closer than one metre from anyone else. I try to keep it at two metres just to be on the safe side. You can even be fined or arrested for getting too close to another.

COVID-19 has spread throughout the entire world, and everyone is viewing those around them as a potential carrier and therefore a potential threat. Even my close friends don’t want me in their house (though to be fair, I don’t really want them in mine either). We are living in a moment in history where we are all viewed as a great danger to one another. This is, of course, all necessary and understandable during this pandemic. However, it is still a strange time of being isolated and feeling, in a way, unwanted by those around me.

Sanitary practises and social distancing may seem to be part of the new normal but they are as old as the Bible. We see in the first reading, biblical prescriptions set out to prevent an infectious disease from spreading in the community. To avoid contact and contamination, the leper, the person infected with this virulent skin disease, is to observe a strict regime of social distancing. He is to be quarantined and kept apart from the community, and he is to be dressed in a manner easily identifiable and to shout out warnings to others to ensure that the social distancing measures are not violated.

But we see something entirely different in the gospel. Our Lord bridges the gap and closes the distance. He, in fact, breaks with the SOP on social distancing in His encounter with the leper. Our Lord did not just speak to the leper and draw close to him, but he did the most outrageous thing - our Lord “stretched out his hand and touched him.” Some of you may immediately declare - “how gross!” Upon reading this, my hands automatically reached out for the nearest hand sanitiser as if the touch of Jesus would also render my flesh contaminated too.

But this story is not just about infectious diseases and the public health precautious we must observe. It is a story about humanity, sin and salvation. An infectious disease is the most apt analogy for sin. Consider this - we are that leper, covered not with the sores of that horrible disease, but covered in the shame of our sins. Our sins have rendered us untouchable. Our sins have kept us separated from God, the community and others. Sin is equally infectious. It is interesting how sin begets sin. Unless one’s spiritual immunity is high, many of us could easily succumb to the pandemic of sin that is so prevalent in our culture and society.

But contemplating the story of how Christ approached, spoke to, touched and healed the leper, has made me all the more grateful for what He has done to me. Regardless of how gross our past or present is, the lesson from the leper tells us that our Lord still wants to reach out and touch us. Christ did not shy away from us in our guilt and shame. Instead, He willingly stepped into the pandemic of our sin and the havoc that it has brought on this world. And it was a dangerous thing to do. It led Him to the cross. But He loves us that much to risk the terminal effects of sin, for He knew that the only way He would find a cure to sin was to consume it and transform it within His body, like how venom is transformed into anti-venom and immunity is produced from the mutation of the original virus.

As much as this pandemic has wreaked havoc in our world in a way that has not been seen in more than a century, the coronavirus is a small problem in comparison to the problem of sin. Governments have taken such drastic measures to quell the spread of COVID-19, but seem unconcerned with the pandemic of sin. We’ve had this coronavirus pandemic for more than a year and sometimes, it feels like eternity. But we’ve had sin plague us since the beginning of human history. COVID-19 may take the lives of some and threaten the livelihood of others, but sin can deprive us of something far more important – eternal life. Yes, we’ve battled sin, many have succumbed to it, but we live in hope and not in defeat because we have already found the cure - it is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Christ has entered into this sinful world, He has come near to us, and He offers redemption.

And though at times, we may feel too ashamed of our condition to approach the Lord or go and see a priest for confession for fear that we would be harshly judged, the example of the leper teaches us how when one approaches the Lord in humility and faith, not as someone entitled, but as someone recognising that grace is always a gift given to the undeserving, telling Him, “if you want to, you can cure me”, we can be certain that Our Lord would never turn us away or refuse that request. This is what He will say to us every time we turn to Him in sincere repentance, “Of course I want to! Be cured!”