Sixth Sunday of the Year - February 12, 2012
Catholic Charities
Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46 1 Corinthians 10: 31 - 11: 1 Mark 1: 40-45
I recently had a conversation with an elderly gentleman during which he made the statement: “It’s hard to be a Catholic.” Long after that conversation, those words have stayed with me. In the context of the discussion I had with him, he had questions about some of the values and principles that he understood about his Catholic faith. He was not disputing them, but as he was facing challenges in his life and recognized the demands these values made on him, he was wondering whether he could match them both physically and mentally. What he knew spiritually, what was in accord with the faith he professed, was important to him.
Is it “hard to be a Catholic?” There are, indeed, a great many challenges which we confront in living out that identity. There are values to which we subscribe associated with the worth and dignity of life. There are values to which we subscribe associated with the worth and dignity of every person as a reflection of God. There are values to which we subscribe that are associated with how we view ourselves, how we view others and how we view society. Likewise, there are certain consequences to those beliefs and values that affect the manner in which we choose to live and the decisions that we make. They affect what we do, what efforts we need to make as individuals and as a community. Being a “Catholic” is not just a label. Being a “Catholic” carries with it a perspective, a way of looking at things, a way of making choices, a way of living.
In the conversation God had with us today that took place in the Scripture passages we heard, we are brought into contact with a very serious and repulsive disease, leprosy or Hansen’s disease. It is a disease that is external, that is observable, and that had very serious consequences. As it was described, a person with leprosy was ostracized from the community. That person was required to announce that ostracism by declaring “Unclean, unclean.” It meant that the person was unworthy to be associated with others and had to stay away from the rest of the community.
In the account that was given to us by Saint Mark, we were told of a person who was afflicted with this disease. Rather than staying away, he boldly approached Jesus and, in doing so, went counter to the requirement by which he was bound. Jesus, just as boldly, responded to him. He, too, went counter to what was done by reaching out to the man and touching him. This action by the man, and the action by Jesus, restored the man to health and made him whole again.
What both the individual and Jesus did was “hard.” It was counter to what was required, what was expected, by society and by the religious practice of the time. But the actions offer to us an important thought for ourselves about upholding the values and principles regarding worth and dignity and respect for life and for all persons that are fundamental to our Catholic belief and practice. This is hard to do, at times. It can run counter to a society that is focused on self, on immediate gratification, on personal fulfillment no matter how this affects others. It can run counter to how other persons and the good of society as a whole might be judged. It can run counter to making decisions and choices that benefit one’s self without regard to the effect these may have on others.
Confronted with a choice of living this way, it may well be “hard to be Catholic.” At the same time, however, we are being asked during these weeks to give attention to the Catholic Charities Appeal which is using as its theme: “I am Catholic.” Rather than shun this title as something which is difficult, we are being asked to embrace it wholeheartedly. It is a title that is not an embarrassment, but a declaration of faith, of principles, of values which take a concrete form in the manner in which we support the work of Catholic Charities in our diocese.
We are being asked to reach out, to touch, persons and elements of our society that are often shunned or on the fringe. We are being asked to consider thinking along the lines suggested by Saint Paul, in which we do not seek our own benefit but the needs and benefit of many. We are being asked to be imitators of Paul as he recognized himself as seeking to imitate Christ. We are being asked to share part of our own material resources, some of our own security to assist the efforts of Catholic Charities in our diocese, the oldest and largest such organization in our country, in its efforts to reach out and to touch over 300,000 individuals. Perhaps we know a few such persons. We certainly do not know most. They include the elderly, those with special needs, persons dealing with substance abuse, young people and those who are homeless and hungry. It is an effort which has been made by us as a diocese for 100 years. It has been made by those who went ahead of us in faith, by those who handed on this faith to us, and by many who had significantly less than what we enjoy today.
It may be hard to be a Catholic. It means being part of an organization, an institution, that has the faults and failings which come with being human. But it also means being part of an organization, a community of believers, that brings us together to support one another, to reach out and to touch others, to benefit many who might otherwise be overwhelmed and neglected. It is in this way that we imitate the Christ of the Gospel, in revealing the goodness and love of our gracious God.