When you hear that someone has lung cancer, isn't your first question, "How much did they smoke?" Now, we know that ANYONE can get lung cancer, but we see a connection between smoking and that disease, for so often they ARE connected in some way.
In Jesus' day, the disease of leprosy was believed to be the direct result of ONE particular sin, and ONLY one particular sin. That sin was "The Evil Tongue." Now, there are a range of possible categories of that sin: lying, swearing, vicious talk including gossip–whether or not it's true–negativity, fault-finding, blaming, criticizing, destroying other's hope. There are lots of ways to commit the ONE sin of "the evil tongue," but it was THIS SIN, in one of its incarnations that was thought to be the direct cause of leprosy.
How did they deduce that? Actually, it was not deduced, or induced, it was considered Divinely Revealed. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron "speak against" Moses, about something to do with his wife. God, Himself hears of it, and calls Aaron, Moses and Miriam to the tent of meeting, and in punishment, Miriam comes away a leper..........and Aaron should have had the same punishment, but he was the High Priest, and had he been leprous, his office would have been vacated, and he was creating the cult...so...God spared him, but he lived the rest of his life knowing that Miriam, his sister, had born his share of the punishment for his own sins. And, Miriam, the leprous lady, had to "remain outside the camp" for 7 days...i.e., she had to learn to appreciate the goodness of belonging to the group so that she wouldn't again "diss" it in her speech.
So.........fast forward to Jesus' time. A leper comes, obviously a person who can't control his tongue. Jesus cleanses him of the disease, then asks him, politely, not to say anything to anyone. But, the man may have had the skin cured, but the disease is still very much with him. ... He STILL can't keep his mouth shut!!! This time, his words impair the ministry of Jesus.
And people: THAT MAN IS US! We are here, cleansed in Baptism, but our words often hinder the ministry of Jesus. We can put spite, anger, hateful speech out there, we can put slander and lies and all sorts of gossip out there....stuff that destroys other people....each one of them "a Christ" in the world..........and we hurt them, and HIM.
The readings ask us to PLEASE, PLEASE get control of our speech. We need to be a holy priesthood, and that begins within! We watch what come out of us....for it is what comes out of us—our words—that render us evil and unclean, and which most hurt the Christ and the work of the Church. So, today, as we look at all we can do for the poorer parishes in our midst with the Together in Mission Appeal, let's also think of what we can do for the larger Church by being holier in our speech. And may God bless you all. +
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1 comment:
Fr. Bill - thank you for these fabulous sermons. My husband is Jewish and over the Christmas holidays we took 8 family members, including us, to Israel where we connected with Jewish relatives and did a grand tour (the second for my husband and me, but first for the next generation.) I had saved your Oct. 26, 2008 sermon. After 16 years of Catholic education, for the first time I really felt I understood the political situation in Jesus's time. We were first at Caesaria which now has been extensively excavated. There we could see the lavish way the Romans - Herod - lived - no Jews could live there. Then on to Galilee. I'm just reading that sermon again. Yes, I never REALLY understood what a Pharisee was. Thank you so much. I like them all and glad to be the first computer follower - at least that's what the screen shows. Mary Bradley Horwitz
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