VI Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Homily on Sunday, February 11, 2024.

Lev 13: 1-2, 44-46; Ps 32: 1-2, 5, 11; 1Cor: 10: 31 - 11:1, Mk 1: 40-45

"I will do it. Be made clean.""

We live in a diverse and beautiful world, today some cultures from Asia continue the celebration of the Lunar New Year. Many people gather for this beautiful celebration and they thank God for a new cycle. This calendar is very interesting because, through it, humans can see a pact between God and them, where God gives nature to Humans for ordering life and living fully. We see how people have different forms of understanding life, this is the capacity for doing culture.

Today in the first reading, we listened the Leviticus. Leviticus’s book has the topic of spreading all the rules of Jews through the priests. We hear some verses about the leper sickness how an impurity sickness (at that time all the sicknesses from skin were identified like leprosy). We listened to how the lepers were treated, at the beginning the rule was only for sanity, after this rule began as a sacred law. There were marginalized people, the leprosy was a kind the marginalization. We can see that all cultures have their own rules and different forms of seeing reality. In our actual society, there are many kinds of marginalization and poor people, and our social system can see that as normal.

Today in the Gospel we heard about a liberator message from Jesus. He healed the leper and sent the leper to the priest. Jesus was Jewish but his message is beyond. It means going beyond the culture and purifying the society because He cares for the poor. The leper didn’t go with the priest and went to spread the miracle in the region. That was a scandal for the Jewish people because he didn’t follow the law. The spreading from the leper is evangelization, he is already preaching the Gospel.

Are there injustices in our world? Am I an injustice person with others? Have I refused for my family, friends, or society? Today we can approach Jesus, and with a humble heart we ask him “If you wish, you can make me clean.” There are many things that we need to change, attitudes, addictions, and sins. God is a merciful father, and with love, he says “I will do it. Be made clean.” God touches our hearts like he touched the leper.

We are here because at some moment we felt the grace of the Lord like the leper, maybe we are looking for this grace from God. it means that we are called to be happy and in plenitude. Many times we are sad because the things in our life are so bad or not good at all. We should imitate the leper, he had nothing but when he found the grace from God he reached his plenitude.

Living in God´s grace in this world is not easy. Saint Paul encouraged his community in Greece to keep in God. In Corinthian there were complicated situations for the Christians because the Corinthian people had other traditions. Sometimes the Christian’s faith was put in danger. we need to put our faith in God and we need to be brave. Living the gospel is not easy but with the grace of God, we can reach the goal. We can follow the advice from Paul “doing everything for the glory of God”.

These readings together introduce us to the Ash Wednesday. God bless us and help us to have a good week. We can begin the lent knowing that God wants our happiness and he loves us.