“Looking Ahead” is a reflection on the Sunday readings by Father Perry.
“One who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare: he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart.”
They will be separated from family, community, human touch, closeness, and intimacy.
To be healed from leprosy was to have one’s life given back to them.
It is no wonder that no matter where Jesus went, no matter how he tried to go off to deserted places even to pray, they always found him. They searched him out. They looked everywhere because they were in need of healing, liberation from evil, clear teaching, and truth that could lift their spirit.
Jesus had it all. Jesus gave it all. Jesus gave people back their lives. Jesus showed them the way. Jesus opened up the meaning and the power of God’s kingdom to them.
We live in a world inhabited by hundreds of millions more people than in Jesus’ time.
We have larger problems. We have more disease and illness, more poverty, greater political divides, and social and financial complexities never before experienced. People are more educated; at the same time, there is lingering illiteracy.
With over 7 billion people on the planet, we are and will face enormous issues like limited resources, lack of clean air and water, changing climates, and new and unpreventable or infectious diseases that cannot be treated.
Instead of becoming more manageable and understandable, the world is becoming more difficult, more congested, more complex. and more divided.
More than ever, we need to hear Jesus speak. We need his healing touch. We need his promise of the kingdom. We need our hungers and thirsts (deep within our individual and collective spirits) satisfied.
More than ever we need to echo the words of the psalm today: “I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.”
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 14th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
