{"id":1140,"date":"2012-02-12T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turski.me\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2012-02-12T00:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T00:00:05","slug":"6th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=1140","title":{"rendered":"6th Sunday in Ordinary time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday in my sermon I claimed that Jesus\u2019 main job wasn\u2019t healing people of their sicknesses. It seems that today\u2019s gospel is contrary to that statement of mine, as we can see a leper cured by the Lord. Perhaps you know that the last person in the whole universe to own up his own mistake is a clergyman. So because I am<\/strong> a clergyman you now know what\u2019s going to happen: I will try to convince you I was right, against the facts.<\/p>\n

We are afraid of being ill \u2013 that\u2019s obvious. We don\u2019t like pain, we don\u2019t want to suffer. Some illnesses are just inconvenient, like blocked noses; or irritating, like \u2018high winds\u2019. Some of them make our life harder while the others end it. The more serious the illness the greater impact on life it has. Consequently we try to prevent ourselves against contracting a disease (rather rare approach) or we want to be quickly healed when we\u2019ve got one (much more \u2018popular\u2019 attitude).<\/p>\n

For the last two years I\u2019ve heard many times various people praising medical staff of one hospital or another as sensitive, helpful, caring and incredibly professional. I have no reason to doubt that their opinions were honest; although my contacts with the NHS have been rather rare thanks to my healthy lifestyle (whisky and biscuits) it\u2019s always been a positive experience. So why do we dread going to hospital? And why do we want to leave it as soon as possible? The first of today\u2019s reading prompts the answer. Let\u2019s listen to it again: \u2018A man infected with leprosy must wear his clothing torn and his hair disordered, […] he must live apart: he must live outside the camp\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leprosy, unlike many other \u2018popular\u2019 diseases, doesn\u2019t kill within days, weeks or months; it can last for years or even decades. Disfigured, limbless bodies of lepers, opened, rotting and smelling wounds repelled healthy people. The exclusion of lepers from the local community has been a commonly accepted solution. Unbelievably the last leper colony in Europe still exists in Romania, although since 1991 its residents have been free to leave it. Most of them haven\u2019t left it, because after decades or even generations of exclusion they have no place to go, no friends to meet, no skills to find work. They\u2019d stopped being part of the social fabric, the network of mutual relations. I\u2019d say the most painful aspect of being ill is the feeling of exclusion, the feeling of being alone, forgotten and abandoned.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel a leper implores Jesus for healing. So he does; and he insists the leper should \u00a0keep it quiet and to follow the rules of law. But he doesn\u2019t; the leper starts telling his story to the people he meets. He is now able to do something he hasn\u2019t been allowed for years \u2013 to have a social life, to belong to a community. Now he can love and hate; now he can listen and be listened to; now he can argue and to reconcile… All these elements of life we take for granted and often do not appreciate. Jesus restores something more important than physical health; he restores the sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

We gather in this church more or less regularly. We come here drawn by someone greater than we ourselves: God. We come along seeking a love greater than ours, a hope steadier than ours, a faith stronger than ours. We look up to God. But He urges us to look horizontal as well as vertical. Pain, suffering, problems \u2013 they are bearable as long as we belong; as long as we are not forlorn. This community gives us such a chance. Obviously there are people here you like less than others; of course there are people with different views and opinions; certainly there are people here with peculiar habits and customs. But that\u2019s the point: variety is good. This community desperately needs it. We have to learn \u2013 or learn again \u2013 to get over our resentments and grudges; to forgive and forget. Just ask Jesus: \u2018If you want to, you can cure me\u2019.<\/em> His answer is obvious: \u2018Of course I want to!\u2019.<\/em> There is only one simple question: Do you<\/strong> want to be healed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday in my sermon I claimed that Jesus\u2019 main job wasn\u2019t healing people of their sicknesses. It seems that today\u2019s gospel is contrary to that statement of mine, as we can see a leper cured by the Lord. Perhaps you know that the last person in the whole universe to own up his own mistake is a clergyman. So because I am a clergyman you now know what\u2019s going to happen: I will try to convince you I was right, against the facts. We are afraid of being ill \u2013 that\u2019s obvious. We don\u2019t like pain, we don\u2019t want to suffer. Some illnesses are just inconvenient, like blocked noses; or irritating, like \u2018high winds\u2019. Some of them make our life harder while the others end it. The more serious the illness the greater impact on life it has. Consequently we try to prevent ourselves against contracting a disease (rather rare approach) or we want to be quickly healed when we\u2019ve got one (much more \u2018popular\u2019 attitude). For the last two years I\u2019ve heard many times various people praising medical staff of one hospital or another as sensitive, helpful, caring and incredibly professional. I have no reason to doubt that their opinions were honest; although my contacts with the NHS have been rather rare thanks to my healthy lifestyle (whisky and biscuits) it\u2019s always been a positive experience. So why do we dread going to hospital? And why do we want to leave it as soon as possible? The first of today\u2019s reading prompts the answer. Let\u2019s listen to it again: \u2018A man infected with leprosy must wear his clothing torn and his hair disordered, […] he must live apart: he must live outside the camp\u2019. Leprosy, unlike many other \u2018popular\u2019 diseases, doesn\u2019t kill within days, weeks or months; it can last for years or even decades. Disfigured, limbless bodies of lepers, opened, rotting and smelling wounds repelled healthy people. The exclusion of lepers from the local community has been a commonly accepted solution. Unbelievably the last leper colony in Europe still exists in Romania, although since 1991 its residents have been free to leave it. Most of them haven\u2019t left it, because after decades or even generations of exclusion they have no place to go, no friends to meet, no skills to find work. They\u2019d stopped being part of the social fabric, the network of mutual relations. I\u2019d say the most painful aspect of being ill is the feeling of exclusion, the feeling of being alone, forgotten and abandoned. In today\u2019s gospel a leper implores Jesus for healing. So he does; and he insists the leper should \u00a0keep it quiet and to follow the rules of law. But he doesn\u2019t; the leper starts telling his story to the people he meets. He is now able to do something he hasn\u2019t been allowed for years \u2013 to have a social life, to belong to a community. Now he can love and hate; now he can listen and be listened to; now he can argue and to reconcile… All these elements of life we take for granted and often do not appreciate. Jesus restores something more important than physical health; he restores the sense of belonging. We gather in this church more or less regularly. We come here drawn by someone greater than we ourselves: God. We come along seeking a love greater than ours, a hope steadier than ours, a faith stronger than ours. We look up to God. But He urges us to look horizontal as well as vertical. Pain, suffering, problems \u2013 they are bearable as long as we belong; as long as we are not forlorn. This community gives us such a chance. Obviously there are people here you like less than others; of course there are people with different views and opinions; certainly there are people here with peculiar habits and customs. But that\u2019s the point: variety is good. This community desperately needs it. We have to learn \u2013 or learn again \u2013 to get over our resentments and grudges; to forgive and forget. Just ask Jesus: \u2018If you want to, you can cure me\u2019. His answer is obvious: \u2018Of course I want to!\u2019. There is only one simple question: Do you want to be healed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-b"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}