Sometimes We Do Harm...

"Sometimes we do harm when we think we are doing good."



February 12 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Leprosy has not been wiped out even in our progressive times and even though the cure is not difficult. In the Old Testament it was a frequent visitor and the First Reading gives us that context. The emphasis is on separating the sick individual from the community to avoid a general contagion. We speak in our day of the leprosy of sin and we believe this is a fair comparison: just as the body of the leper is disfigured and even completely consumed by the disease, so is the spirit of the sinner and - if we are to take certain visions of the Saints as our guide - becomes indescribably more horrible because of the beauty of the human spirit.


The Responsorial Psalm is concentrated on this spiritual leprosy but adds a note of hope: whatever may be the remedy for physical leprosy, spiritual leprosy can be forgiven, wiped clean, and the soul restored to its original beauty.


The Second Reading finds our holy Patron urging us to live well and live for God - do everything for His glory. That puts a positive spin on Christian living: doing all for God in good faith helps us avoid the leprosy of sin.


The Gospel highlights the arrival of the Great Healer and the Age of the Messiah. Jesus wants to keep this particular event secret from the mass of the people to avoid any movement toward setting up a kingdom on earth and so he tells the leper: "Mind you say nothing to anyone, with the exception of the religious leaders." They should know that a radical change in their lives has come, but as history shows, they had their own ideas of what sort of change was involved and the Lord was rejected.


That is one point but there is another perhaps more helpful to us today. The leper is told not to speak about his cure except to the priests but - doubtless in the best of faith - he disobeys. We tend to associate disobedience with a clear defiance of a reasonable order or perhaps only a polite request, but sometimes we do harm when we think we are doing good! The leper was overcome with joy when he saw the evidence of his horrible disease disappearing and he just couldn't keep the good news to himself. In the Institute we have occasionally to ask ourselves if we are following the letter of the law or "something better." The problem is that, as a general rale, there is nothing better than a legitimate command and we have to be careful to avoid spending too much time "doing good" and finding that there is no trace in eternity of all that effort.


~ February 2012 Concord