HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II. 26.06.2020.

Readings: 2 Kings 25:1-12; Psalm 137:1-6 and Mathew 8: 1-4. 

COMPASSIONATE GOD. 

 

True compassion, is when you look beyond your pain and see the pains of others. It is an action word with no boundaries, which the liturgy of today calls us to reflect on.

 

The Israelites had a covenant with God, they were blessed and cherished by God insofar as they kept His law, as they had promised; but if they abandoned the covenant they would be punished with exile and disaster. This is precisely the reason, why the Babylonians invaded them and carried off to shameful exile, as described in the first reading, Judah taken into exile out of his land. The reading present to us a compassionate God who allowed Jerusalem, the holy capital city of his people, to be destroyed, its temple burnt to the ground, the survivors of the long siege to be deported, with only a remnant left behind.

 

Today’s Psalm (137) gives insight to this event, “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept,” portrays a cry of mourning from a repentant one. There by the rivers, they sat and wept, they wept over the death of their loved ones; they wept over the loss of almost everything they owned; they wept over the destroyed city of Jerusalem and their great temple; they wept over the agony of a forced march from Judea to Babylon; they wept over the cruelty of their captors; they wept over the loss of such a pleasant and blessed past; they wept over the forced captivity of their present; they wept over the bleak nature of their future; above all, they wept over their sin that invited such judgment from God.

 

Their conquerors wanted them to sing for their own amusement, the song simply was not there, they rather replied, “How could we sing the song of the Lord on foreign land?” This request was an insult to their faith and to have done so would have been to play a traitor to their own city and to their citizenship. Having this in mind, they vowed not to forget God’s holy city anymore and even gave a curse upon themselves if they do, saying, “If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! O let my tongue cleave to my mouth/palate if I remember you not...”

 

As seen above, the Old Testament present a picture of retribution when we sin against God, that is, our predicaments are result of our sins. This is also the mindset of the people in the time of Christ that anyone with deadly or contagious disease is suffering from the sin committed. The Gospel present the leper that makes his request to Christ, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean… and he touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’” Christ saw the pains of this leper, it was a terrible and destructive disease, just like the present day corona virus, of which many are isolated and quarantine. The leper has to keep a social distance from people. Despite the hopelessness of the ancient time that healing a leper is compared to raising the dead. The leper sought more than healing, he wanted cleansing; not only from leprosy, but also from all its terrible effects on his life and soul. When Christ gave a compassionate touch on him, he was not only healed, but also cleansed and he asked him to, “Go, show yourself to the priest.” Going to the priest will restore him back to the society and every other activities.

 

Dear friends in Christ, today’s reading reminds us that sin separates us from God and makes us stand at a distance like the man with leprosy. Some of us may not been physically ill with leprosy or corona virus as the case may be in our time but spiritually we are effected with this deadly disease which has distant us from God and has made us captives of the evil ones. Like the leper, let us kneel before the Lord and plead for him to cleanse us again. Sacramentally, we need the compassionate hand of a priest to restore us back to God. Peace be with you!

 

Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ