Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Healing the Disease of Division
Do everything for the “glory of God” is easier said than done. If I tried to glorify God in everything I do, what activities might I need to curtail? When I was a child in grade school, the Sisters taught us to write AMDG on top of all of our assignments. In Latin, this means “for the greater glory of God.” As children, we understood that cheating on a test or an assignment was not for the greater glory of God. Name-calling was not for the greater glory of God. As I was in formation to be a Sister, our daily choir practice always began with scales and a sung “All for Jesus, all for Jesus, all for Jesus through Mary.” Fifty plus years later, this reading reminds me to be more conscious of everything—all I think, say, and do. Where my thoughts go, so does my heart and eventually my actions. I definitely have to stop doing some things because they are not for the “glory of God.”
In the reading from Leviticus, we learn about a person with leprosy who has to cry out “Unclean” when encountering others—a form of self-exile. Alice Camille in Exploring the Sunday Readings says this:
If there’s anything that needs to be pronounced “unclean” in this generation, it’s the insistence that there are two kinds of people: our kind and that other. Whether “that other” belongs to another political party, race, religion, gender group, or generation, the disease of division has spread across our society and caused more damage than any pandemic.
The “unclean” person was healed by Jesus. “Moved with pity, Jesus touched him and said, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’” By virtue of our baptism, we too can “touch” and heal. We can do that with love and kindness, by treating every person as the child of God that they are. Healing is essential—for ourselves and for others. For Lent this year, I am committing to having conversations with people who are “the other,” those who are different from me so that I can change my perceptions and become inclusive of all as my sisters and brothers. This will be healing for me. I can change my thoughts, words, and actions. AMDG is on my monitor to remind me. Thank you Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Victoria and now in the Communion of Saints in Heaven.
P.S. A Valentine suggestion: Pass around invisible valentines of kind acts and warm acceptance of everyone today? Make sure no one feels unclean or unwelcome. Every thought, word, and deed can be a participation in the marvelous work of healing.