Beware
the Mousetrap
Fr.
George Smiga
February
12, 2006
Mark
1:40-45
Charity
begins at home. Our first responsibility is to care for those
who are closest to us: our family and our friends. This is
a sound policy, and most of us follow it. So whenever someone
appears as a threat, as a danger, we instinctively push that
person away. We do this in order to protect those that we
love, those who are closest to us. This is certainly the intent
of today's first reading from the book of Leviticus, because
in this reading is found legislation concerning leprosy. Ancient
Israel didn't understand either the cause or the cure for
leprosy, but it did understand that leprosy was contagious.
Therefore, Israel put in place this directive, decreeing that
the person who was infected with leprosy should be separated
from the community. Such people were to live outside the camp,
and they were to call out “unclean, unclean” as a warning
to others to stay away lest they also become infected. This
legislation was a form of quarantine. Quarantines can still
be important, even in our world today. God forbid that the
avian flu would ever materialize as some people fear, but
if it did, we would be dealing with quarantines on a regular
basis.
So
clearly, there are some circumstances in which setting up
barriers and dividing ourselves from others is necessary.
Yet we cannot deny that the gospel pulls us in the opposite
direction. Even in those circumstances where we must accept
divisions within the community, the gospel always regrets
and mourns those barriers and longs for the time when they
might be erased. At the heart of the gospel is the conviction
that whatever divides us lessens us and that we are never
complete until we are united with one another.
Now
to live in a world without divisions, without barriers, is
probably impossible at the present time. But it is clearly
God's intention for the world. This is why the ministry of
Jesus was always concerned with reconciliation, with bringing
people together. This is why Jesus in today's gospel heals
the leper, not simply to remove the disease but to remove
the barrier, so that the leper might again join the community.
You see, Jesus knows that it's all too easy to take necessary
barriers and turn them into convenient prejudices. Jesus understands
that it's all too easy to take the fear of a real enemy and
allow it to exclude someone who looks like an enemy. Jesus
realizes that every time we identify a particular person or
group within society and use that identification to push that
person away, we are playing a dangerous game. Each time we
exclude someone because of race or religion, because of sexual
orientation or appearance, we are working against the kingdom
of God . Moreover, when we work against the kingdom, we are
in fact working against our own best interests.
Perhaps
a parable might help. A mouse was looking through a crack
in the wall of a farmhouse. He was watching the farmer and
his wife open a package. “I wonder what's in that box,” thought
the mouse, “I hope it's cheese.” But it wasn't cheese. To
the mouse's horror, he saw the farmer unpack a mousetrap.
Frightened, the mouse ran out into the barnyard and yelled
out in warning, “There's a mousetrap in the house! There's
a mousetrap in the house!” The chicken clucked and looked
up from plucking her seed. “Mr. Mouse, I'm sure this is a
grave concern to you, but it is no consequence to me. Please
leave me alone.” So the mouse ran over to the pigpen. “There's
a mousetrap in the house!” The pig said, “Oh, I'm sorry to
hear that, but I never go into the house. I'll keep you in
my prayers.” The mouse then ran out to the pasture to warn
the cow. “There's a mousetrap in the house!” “How unfortunate
for you,” said the cow, “but it's no skin off my nose. Please
go away.” So the mouse went back to the house dejected, because
he knew he would have to face the mousetrap alone.
That
very night there was a sound throughout the whole house—a
snap. The mousetrap had just claimed its first victim. The
farmer's wife got up to determine what was caught. But in
the darkness she failed to see that the mousetrap had closed
on the tail of a poisonous snake. When she reached out toward
the trap, the snake bit her. The farmer took her at once to
the hospital, where she stayed for a few days with a serious
fever. Finally, when she was sent home, the doctor recommended
that she be fed chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet
and went out to the hen house. That was the end of the chicken.
But the wife's health did not improve. For days friends came
and sat by her bedside, supporting her. The farmer felt the
pull of hospitality, so he went out and slaughtered the pig
to feed them. Unfortunately, the poor woman died. She was
a very popular person, so people from all over the county
came for her funeral. In order to provide the luncheon, the
farmer slaughtered the cow. The mouse watched all of this
through the crack in the wall. He shook his head. “I tried
to warn them about the mousetrap, but they wouldn't listen.”
Sometimes
we imagine that we can separate ourselves from others without
any consequence or danger to ourselves. Sometimes we might
think that we can divide ourselves from those who are different
with impunity. But the gospel warns us about setting up such
barriers too casually. The gospel understands that when we
choose to build walls, they are just as likely to hurt us
as to protect us. It is a myth to think that we are better
off alone, separated from others. We all inhabit the same
planet, and the life of each person is interwoven with the
lives of others in one great tapestry of life. Whenever we
choose to pull out a particular thread of that tapestry, we
mar the whole cloth.
There
may indeed be times when dividing ourselves from others is
necessary, but Christians always regret and mourn such barriers,
because we know that they are not part of the ultimate plan
of God. That is why we continually commit ourselves to reconciliation,
to forgiveness, and to building unity. We above all others
should know that whenever we choose to divide ourselves from
one another, we do so at our own risk.
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