INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Friday after the feast of
the Epiphany is, “Skin Deep.”
In today’s gospel Jesus touches the hand, the skin, of a someone
with a skin disease.
In Jesus’ times many skin diseases - “uneasies” with
other’s skin - were called leprosy. Most
of the Bible commentaries say the skin disease of leprosy or Hansen’s disease -
was not what these folks in the Bible had.
Whatever….
Whatever! People are scared of skin diseases in our times as well as in Jesus’ time …..
What I like is that Jesus’ touched skin - pressed the
flesh. He washed feet and let his feet be washed.
Without rubber gloves….
Of course we can catch stuff by touching stuff and
touching skin. In every hospital there are dispensers everywhere to squirt away
germs. They didn’t know about germs and microbes in Jesus’ time - like we know
today - but they had inklings.
SKIN PROBLEMS
As we all know there are multiple skin problems - skin
cancer, lupus, measles, acne, eczema, rosacea, cysts, cellulites, shingles,
psoriasis, rashes, cold sores, what have you.
Many of us saw Mikhail Gorbachev’s birth mark - called a
Port Wine birthmark or “nevus frameus”.
In our time there has developed a field in psychology
called, “psychodermatology”. In looking up stuff on this for this homily I read
an interesting story. In a conference on
skin - someone said there is no connection between skin and the emotions. A person who said there was a connection said
the speaker said that while his fly was open. The guy turned red - checked his
fly - but not his face - which had become red. It wasn’t true about his zipper,
but it proved the point - that our skin is effected by our emotions. We scratch,
we itch, we bite our skin. When I’m nervous - like in traffic, I scratch my neck and my skull.
JESUS IS A MODEL
Jesus models how to treat one another - no matter how we
look - no matter how our skin is - no matter how old and how wrinkled we are.
I assume that means how we treat others - and how we
treat ourselves.
I assume that means how we see ourselves in the mirror.
I assume this means how we reflect on issues of esteem of
self and others.
PIZZA - LIMA
I enjoy telling the story about how I once had to undergo
a skin treatment to deal with pre-cancerous skin on my face and my upper neck
and shoulders.
The skin doctor had me apply this white cream to my face
and neck for a month. I did and my face became red and speckled like a pizza. I
was on the road and preaching at the time - so the dermatologist suggested I do
this when work was slow.
I was preaching in other parishes - mainly around Lima,
Ohio at the time.
So there I was hearing confessions in the dark - on a
Saturday afternoon.
Nobody went face to face - but they could. Then the last
person was a lady who went to confession. She sat there 5 feet away in the
semi-darkness - making her confession face to face. She didn’t look up but at
the end as I said, “Go in peace” she reached out her hand and shook mine in
peace - but when she saw my face for the first time she panicked.
Ooops, she didn’t know what to. She then took her hands
and rubbed them on the side of her hip - as she walked out.
At that instant I knew what it might feel like to be a
person with leprosy.
CONCLUSION
I’ve read in Biblical Commentaries that some New
Testament writers are implying that Jesus was the most figured person of all
time - the ultimate leper - and the call is to reach out for him - more than
skin deep.
If you have ever seen the picture St. Alphonsus did of
Christ on the Cross, you’d get the message - seeing Christ on the cross - much
worse than the clean Christ on the cross up here. Amen.
