6 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 12 February 2012, Mark 1:40-45

Trocaire Sign, Kampala, capital of Uganda

As many of you know, a month ago I had the privilege of travelling to Uganda with Trocaire (the Irish Church's outreach to developing countries) . There are many things that I would like to tell you about the trip and I will share much of it with you during Lent. Today, however, I would like to tell you about a particular group of people that we met during our trip.

The focus of Trocaire's work in Uganda is in the North of the country. One of the main towns in that area, with a population of about 200,000 people, is the town of Gulu. We met the Archbishop of Gulu, Most Rev John Baptist Odama, when we were there. He is famous for being instrumental in uniting all the Churches and other faith groups together in the face of the war that was going on there from 1986 to 2006. Archbishop Odama was highly instrumental in beginning the peace process between the rebels and the national government. He was also involved as a mediator between the various parties to the peace process when the talks were difficult.

Sean Farrell, Trocaire, Archbishop Odama, & Yours Truly!

One of the most destructive aspects of the war in Uganda was that very soon after it began the rebels began to abduct children and force them to become child-soldiers. This happened to both boys and girls. One of the horrific ways that the rebels would initiate these young children was by forcing them to return to their families and communities to murder, rape and pillage. By forcing these young children to do this the rebels ensured that in the child's mind they could never return home to whatever was left of their family or community. You can imagine how devastating and de-humanising this was for the children and for the communities concerned.

In Uganda, many of the dioceses have radio stations. It is a way for bishops and priests to preach the gospel to far-flung chapels and parishes that may only see a priest once every few months. One of the ingenius uses of these Church radio stations in areas affected by the abduction of children was to invite families and communities to broadcast a welcome back to those children who had been abducted and forced to do horrendous things to their own people.

The child soldiers out in the bush often had small transistor radios and they would listen to the broadcasts. The message being sent was very clear: even though you have done the most terrible of things, the most horrendous of crimes, you are still loved and you are welcome to come home.

We met a group of young people in their twenties, all of whom had been child-soldiers, all of whom had made their way home. There stories were amazing and wonderful, terrible and beautiful.

They had a phrase that they used for when a child would return back to the community after having committed desperate crimes against the community. The phrase was 'reconciliation without justice'. They knew that there was nothing that any of these children could do to make amends for what they had done. They recovered the traditions of their tribe which acknowledged that horrible things happen in war and that there is no way of putting that right. And so, they have a ritual where the offending person is reconciled to the community, without justice, because there can be no justice in the situation that the child finds himself or herself in.

Daniel Okweng - on this year's Trocaire Box

Leprosy, as described in the Old Testament reading from Leviticus today, was known as the 'living death'. This was for two reasons: firstly, the colour of the affected person was kind of jaundiced and reminded the onlooker of a dead person, and secondly, the leper was banished from the community until such time as the leprosy might leave them.

In biblical times, leprosy was seen as a sign of sin, although we must be careful not to interpret any kind of sickness in this way today.

The leper had to stay outside of the community. As such, a healing from leprosy was seen as being on the same level as a raising from the dead. This was because there was no known cure for leprosy. Therefore if someone was cured of it, it was interpreted as an act of God. Interestingly, the cure of leprosy allowed the former leper to be admitted back into the community. For Christians, this echoes the action of forgiveness of sins: it is an action that can only be done by God and it restores the person to full relationship with the community and full relationship with God.

The work and ministry of priests, and of the Church in general, is profoundly connected to the ministry of Jesus in the gospel. It is a ministry of reconciliation: reconciliation to the community and reconciliation to God. There can be no separation of these two types of reconciliation. If I am reconciled to God, then I am reconciled to the community. If I am not reconciled to the community, then I am not reconciled to God either. This profound ministry, that priests share in in a particular way in the Sacrament of Confession, is a ministry of God alone. Only God can forgive us our sins and restore us to full communion, full relationship again.