avoid evil when you can, but don't be afraid!

Homily for Thursday of the 1st Week of Ordinary Time

KC Young Adult Group

Holy Spirit Parish

14 January 2010

Year for Priests

For daily readings, click here

According to the law of Moses, it was important to remain clean. But Jesus, who was perfectly righteous according to the law, does something unclean in today's Gospel. Jesus touches a leper. The law was written so that the Israelites would never be overcome by evil. Surrounded on all sides by evil, the law is a reliable guide for doing good and avoiding evil. The law is a way to remain faithful to God, and to remain in His goodness. So too in our moral life. It is simple. Do good. Avoid evil. Stay clean. Avoid contamination. We should never overestimate that we can play with fire and not get burned. The Israelites in today's first reading overestimated how good they were versus the evil they were facing. They were soundly defeated. No we are to be careful. We are to be prudent. We are even to surround ourselves as much as we can with people who can help us to be good.

But this is not what we see Jesus doing. He touches the leper. From the moment of his birth, Jesus is the baby prophesied by Isaiah to be able to play by the cobra's den. He is born in the cold, on the move. He is at risk from the very beginning. He has to flee those who wanted to kill him. In his public ministry, he has several Houdini-esque escapes from those who were ready to destroy him. Jesus is the ultimate James Bond - he finds a way out of every situation. He even touches a leper without fear of becoming sick or unclean.

In this, Jesus shows himself to be the one who has power over sin and evil and death. He always has a way out if he wants it. He can dine with tax collectors and sinners without becoming one of them. Evil has no sway over him. Even during his trial, he shows that evil is not really winning, or showing itself more powerful, but that he is freely laying down his life.

St. John told us in his first letter that we too, who have been fully incorporated into Christ, are conquerers of the world with him. Insofar as we are separated from Christ, we must follow the law to surround ourselves with good, and to avoid evil, lest evil destroy us. But insofar as we are in Christ, we are a new creation, and share in his victory over evil and sin and death. Insofar as we are in Christ, He may send us on mission into the heart of darkness, and we need not fear that evil will overcome us. Because through Him, with Him and in Him, we too are the conquerers of the world! +m