When
I was working at Bellarmine University, we regularly encountered homesickness,
especially during the first semester. Even though many try to hide it,
homesickness is a common feeling that most college students experience at some
point if they are living away from home for the first time. Some students feel
more homesick than others and everyone misses different things. Some might feel homesick from missing a
girlfriend or boyfriend, parents, siblings, pets or good friends. Another might
feel homesick for familiar and comfortable surroundings like their own bed or
bedroom or even the mall where they used to hang out with friends. Others might
feel homesick for familiar routines or mama's cooking.
Familiar
surroundings, routines and people provide people with a sense of security and
comfort. People may describe their feelings as deep sadness, depression,
frustration, anger or hopelessness. If they
have additional stress in their lives - like a divorce, a serious illness or a
death in the family - homesickness can be more intense. Most people, when they go through loss or
change, feel especially attached to things that bring them comfort and miss
them more when they are not around them.
It
occurred to me as I was writing this homily that I have experienced homesick -
even in my own home – especially when I am sick! I remember one time in
particular when I had been without power for a week, my new computer had crashed
completely and was unusable for two weeks and I had a terrible sinus infection
that made me sicker than I have been for a long, long time. I yearned to have my
old life back. I wanted things to be like they used to be - hard work and all!
When
I first read the story of the poor leper in today's gospel, I immediately
thought of the physical suffering
that goes with leprosy - lethargy, pain in the joints, oozing sores with a
terrible stench, muscle wasting, loss of fingers or toes - even whole limbs -
but the way this leper makes his
request tells me that what he is suffering from homesickness, even more than
his disease. He wanted his old life
back.
I
say that because lepers were banned from the community. They were shunned, isolated
and made to live alone in caves or cemeteries - anywhere away from the
community. Lepers were not allowed to touch anyone or even speak to them.
Lepers were required to cover their mouths and noses, wear ripped clothes,
uncover their heads and warn people when they were around by calling out,
"Unclean! Unclean!" so that people would have time to run away from
them. They weren't even allowed to go to church. Lepers, then, not only had to
bear physical pain and social isolation, they also felt cut off from God as
well. People even told them their disease was a punishmenet from God for some
sin they had committed!
The
reason this man asks Jesus to be made clean
was not just about a cure for his disease, but his restoration back into
his family and normal society. He wanted to be cured, not just so that he would
feel better physically, but so he could go home and be with his wife, his
children, his relatives, his friends, his people and his religious community.
In other words, he wanted to have his old life back.
Even
though it was forbidden by religious law for a leper to speak to a healthy
person, this leper obviously trusts Jesus enough to approach him and speak to
him. In response, it says that Jesus was
moved with pity, reached out and touched him and spoke to him with love. Those
actions alone connected him to the community again. But Jesus also knew that only a cure of his disease, officially
recognized by the temple priests, would allow him to be totally restored to his
community so he cures him of his leprosy right then and there and told him to
show himself to the priests of the temple.
Have
you ever been shunned, snubbed, teased, passed up, avoided, made fun of,
excluded or marginalized by others because of a mistake you made, a place you
are from, a physical handicap or a sexual orientation? Have you ever had to
live in isolation because of a disease - cut off from friends or regular
routine? Have you ever been an immigrant snubbed by neighbors, discounted on
the evening news and cut off from relatives? Have you ever been in any
situation where you feel all alone and disconnected from those around you?
Do
you remember how wonderful it felt when someone noticed you, spoke to you,
reached out to you and helped you reconnect to normalcy again? Have you ever
been sick for a long time, in isolation, and away from home? We have all heard
the horror stories when isolated, teased and avoided and cruelly marginalized
high school students have been driven to bring guns to school and massacre
others. If a few people had reached out to them, included them and brought them
into the community, it might have been prevented.
I
am not able to cure people, but I have been able to be part of the miracle of
restoring people to the community. I have always had a soft spot in my heart
for marginalized Catholics - those on the edges of the church. I am pround to
say that I was doing it long before Pope Francis was elected Pope! I have made
it my specialty as a priest to talk to them, include them and bring them into the
celebration of God's love. Those gestures have been almost miraculous in some
cases. This has been especially true in confession when a person comes in with
self-loathing and guilty over a mistake they have made. To be able to say a
kind word, rather than a sharp rebuke, an assurance of God's love rather than a
stinging condemnation, in those situations are almost miraculous. I remember
hearing an elderly womn’s confession a few weeks before she died. It was right
here in this Cathedral. After 60 years of not going to confession and filled
with guilt, I helped her “let it go” with all the kindness and compqassion I
could muster. Her last words to me, as she was leaving the confessional were
these. “I have never had anyone to speak that nice to me!”
The
bottom line of this gospel is that we all
have the power to heal the broken-hearted, the marginalized and the
rejected of this world - be it a young person with a difficult personality or
physical abnormality or an elderly person living alone and neglected by their
families - by doing what Jesus did. He restored that connection by allowing
them to approach him and by speaking to them with kindness. Before you can do
that, however, you must look beyond your own self and take notice of the people
around you. Try it! You might be the one
who makes a real difference in someone's life this week! Maybe you can make that difference today in this very church! You just might “heal” them with your kind
words!
