Lev
13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31–11:1; Mk 1:40-45
The novel "Untouchable"
written by Mulk Raj Anand gives a touching account of the plight of the
untouchables in India. The story is narrated by Bakha who is a hard working boy
who never disobeys his father despite his repugnance for him and his lifestyle.
Bakha endures one of the
most humiliating and depressing days of his young life in this story. From sunrise on he is forced to deal with discrimination, hatred and hypocrisy. He is woken this early morning by his father’s shouts. The first chore of the day is to clean the latrines before the rest of the community gets up to use them. When Bakha sleeps in he is chided by a local man who wants to use the toilet, "Why aren't the latrines clean, you rogue of a Bakhe!
most humiliating and depressing days of his young life in this story. From sunrise on he is forced to deal with discrimination, hatred and hypocrisy. He is woken this early morning by his father’s shouts. The first chore of the day is to clean the latrines before the rest of the community gets up to use them. When Bakha sleeps in he is chided by a local man who wants to use the toilet, "Why aren't the latrines clean, you rogue of a Bakhe!
More humiliation is in store for Bakha before his day is out. His curiosity takes him to a local temple, where he climbs the steps to get a glimpse of the wonders inside. Untouchables are not allowed to see the inside of the temple for purity reasons. While Bakha was peering through the window he was interrupted by the priest shouting, "Polluted! Polluted! ". Soon a crowd had gathered and they all berated Bakha saying they would need to perform a purification ceremony . Bakha ran down to the courtyard where his sister was waiting.
The story goes on to show even more examples of the
harsh treatment of untouchables. This book exposes the hardships that the
untouchables have to face. Nothing in their lives is made easy.
All three readings of today contain the Christian
teaching on the need for social acceptance even when people are different from
us. The first reading shows the ancient Jewish
attitude toward leprosy and the rules for quarantining lepers. This provides a
background for Jesus' healing of a leper. According to the Mosaic Law
leapers had to dress in torn clothes, keep their hair unkempt, and their life
became a life long period of mourning and estrangement.
Mark simply states "A leper came to him and
pleaded on his knees."
He saw that Jesus was his only hope, so he dared to
break the rule forbidding too goo close to people.
"Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out
his hand and touched him."
The leper had broken a rule; Jesus broke
another. No Jew would have ever touched a leper. The mere touch
rendered him legally impure. Jesus ignored the law. Then Jesus asked him to go
to the priests to be instated into the society.
Man is not meant to be alone; he needs a family, he
needs friends, he needs to belong to a community to be really
happy. But when sin and selfishness enter man's life, they estrange
man from God, they estrange man from his society and they estrange man
from himself.
First of all sin separates us from God. When
Adam ate the forbidden fruit and disobeyed the command of God, he
was overtaken by fear; and he fled from the presence of God. He hid
himself from the presence of God. When God called him he said that he was
hiding from him. When Cain killed his brother Abel God called him. Cain
answered that he was hiding from God.
"In 1992, a Los Angeles County parking control officer came upon a
brown El Dorado Cadillac illegally parked next to the curb on street-sweeping
day.
The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. Ignoring the man seated at the
driver's wheel, the officer reached inside the open car window and placed the
$30 citation on the dashboard.
The driver of the car made no excuses. No argument ensued-and with good
reason. The driver of the car had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours
before but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward, with
blood on his face. He was dead.
The officer, preoccupied with ticket-writing, was unaware of anything
out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove away.
There was an Indian prince who
was a leper, but his leprosy was known to very few. When he appeared in public,
he always wore a large jewel on his forehead, which sparkled and glittered in
the light of the many lamps in his court. Only when he was alone did he remove
the jewel, and then his mirror revealed to him the leprous spot where the jewel
had been. Knowing of his leprous condition, he had devised this means of hiding
it from the public and covering it up.
Many people around us are 'dead in transgressions and sins.' What should
catch our attention most is their need, not their offenses. They don't need a
citation; they need a Saviour." To show them the saviour, bring them
back from their estrangement is the role of every Christian today.
Secondly, sin separates us from our
brothers. In the year 1602 there
appeared in Europe at Leyden a pamphlet telling of a Jew who had taunted and
struck Jesus as he passed on his way to the cross, shouting at him, "Go
quicker!" Jesus paused and answered "I go. But thou shalt wait till I
return."
This story of
the eternal, or the wandering Jew, met quick and popular acceptance everywhere,
and in scores of works of fiction and poetry, and in paintings, the story has
been told of the Jew who struck Jesus and was condemned to wander homeless, a
fugitive on the face of the earth, until Christ shall come again.
This legend,
which took so powerful a hold upon the thought and fancy of mankind, sets forth
the solemn truth of the loneliness of sin. We read that when Cain slew his
brother Abel he "went on from the presence of the Lord" ((Gen. 4:16).
Sin always drives a man out......out from his friends.
Thirdly sin
estranges us from ourselves.
'He that
covereth his sin shall not prosper.' (Ps. 32:1; Prov. 28:13)
The particular
lesson that we should not miss from today's Gospel is that sin brings loneliness
to man, and with loneliness, utter misery.
We need to tear down the walls that
separate us from others and build bridges of loving relationship. Jesus calls
every one of us to demolish the walls that separate us from each other and to
welcome the outcasts and the untouchables of society, so that we will be
welcomed by God into his presence.
Satish