Sunday, Feb. 15, is the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B).
Mass Readings
Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45
Our Take
Today’s readings focus on leprosy. Far from being irrelevant to our lives, this is a crucially important topic. Spiritual writers for centuries have seen leprosy as a metaphor for mortal sin. Leprosy made victims outcasts from society and ritually impure. Mortal sin makes us outcasts from the community of saints and makes our souls sick and weak.
On this Sunday in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said: “In effect, it is not the physical illness of leprosy, as stated by the old norms, that separates us from him, but sin, spiritual and moral evil.” He added, “If the sins that we commit are not confessed with humility and trust in the Divine Mercy, they can even reach the point of producing the death of the soul.”
Mortal sin is not an antiquated notion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church includes this bracing statement:
“Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. … If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices forever, with no turning back” (1861).
“One commits a mortal sin when there are simultaneously present: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent,” says the Compendium of the Catechism (395).
In other words, if you commit a serious offense, by choice, and know it — you are guilty of mortal sin.
In the 2006 document “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to the Supper,” the U.S. bishops listed some common sins that are grave matter.
- “Committing murder, including abortion and euthanasia; harboring deliberate hatred of others”;
- “Engaging in sexual activity outside the bonds of a valid marriage”;
- “Missing Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation without a serious reason, such as sickness or the absence of a priest”;
- Theft, including “serious fraud, or other immoral business practices”;
- “Speaking maliciously or slandering people in a way that seriously undermines their good name. … Harboring deliberate hatred of others. … Engaging in envy that leads one to wish grave harm to someone else”; and
- “Producing, marketing or indulging in pornography.”
It’s important to note that there is no such thing as “sinning by accident” — if someone didn’t know or didn’t choose, she didn’t sin. But if a person committed any of these sins deliberately and knowingly, that person is in a state of mortal sin — he has spiritual leprosy.
How to cure leprosy? Jesus in the Gospel tells the leper, “Present yourself to the priest.” The Church tells us the same thing: Seek forgiveness through the sacraments.
“Anyone who is conscious of having committed a grave sin must first receive the sacrament of reconciliation before going to Communion,” says the Compendium of the Catechism (291).
Then, we can experience the joy the Psalm speaks of — the greatest joy of all, “the joy of salvation”: “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered.”
Tom and April Hoopes write from Atchison, Kansas,
where Tom is writer in residence at Benedictine College.