Opening reflection (taken from Magnificat magazine, www.magnificat.com): Jesus “stretched out his hand [and] touched him.” This was probably the first time the leper had ever been touched. That contact was just as compelling as his cure. The leper perceives in Jesus a compassion, a “pity”; like nothing else, the personal experience of sickness and suffering can make one acutely aware of the tenderness and goodness of another. Most likely the leper never would have begged Jesus in this way if he had not been afflicted in the first place. “I turn to You, Lord, in time of trouble.” The leper presents himself to the Great High Priest who “fills him with the joy of salvation.”
(This weekend's Scripture readings are available in the New American Bible translation – the one used in U.S. Catholic parishes – at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website at http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021212.cfm or the Vatican's English website at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM.)
First Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 (Revised Standard Version)
A reading from the book of Leviticus.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. If he is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest must pronounce him unclean; his disease is on his head.
"The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, `Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.”
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation: The contents of Leviticus, the third book in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, provoke a variety of reactions. Some say it's the book that causes them to lose heart whenever they set out to read the Bible straight through. Others read the surface meaning of particular laws, like the one outlined here, and find them inexplicable coming from a God who is supposed to be love Himself. But context may be more important in understanding this middle book of the Torah – and its role in God's plan of salvation – than it is in any other book.
The chapter-and-verse divisions added in the Middle Ages actually do not serve our understanding well in this case. Leviticus forms the bulk of the “second Sinai covenant,” which begins in Exodus 34 and continues through the start of Numbers 10. Had Israel not committed the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32) while Moses was atop the mountain with God for 40 days, the “first covenant” he received there (Exodus 20-31) would have been the extent of the Law Israel would have had to follow. And its content was far less detailed than the laws God imposed after Moses ground the golden calf to pieces and pleaded with God not to destroy his people.
In any case, some of these additional laws were linked at least in part to practical health concerns. This was so with the ban on eating pork, which then and now can cause trichinosis if not properly cooked. Leprosy – which likely covered a variety of contagious skin diseases besides the one now known as Hansen's disease – was another such case. Only in the 1940s was a cure found; before then, quarantine was the only way to prevent an epidemic. All the Scriptural stories about leprosy, including the one in today's Gospel, need to be considered with this reality in mind.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
Brothers and sisters: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation: This reading completes Paul's teaching earlier in this chapter about the necessity for Christians to adapt themselves (to “be all things to all men”) in order to win people to the Gospel. It's equally important, Paul says here, to live the Good News in everything we do and with everyone we meet. Only to the degree that we can do so will a cynical, willfully self-centered world see the way that God created us to live – the way that Jesus came to model for us. Jesus Christ is the only hope for the world. Only by imitating Him can we live as we were meant to live.
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark. Glory to You, O Lord.
A leper came to Jesus beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.
Meditation: What are the unusual aspects here? They begin with the leper approaching Jesus to seek a cure. That in itself was a violation of the Mosaic Law, for it put everyone he encountered at risk. But the leper was compelled by faith – and faith time and again was the prerequisite for Christ to work a public miracle in the Gospels. And Jesus responds as God always responds to those who approach Him in faith, abandoning their own selfish will and putting themselves fully in His hands. He grants the leper's request.
Why tell the leper not to tell anyone? It does seem, based on other similar commands in the Gospels, that Jesus very well knows that the cured leper will indeed tell everyone – for did this not also spread word that the Kingdom of God was in their midst? But remember in this case also that Jesus came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. So he tells the cured leper to complete the ritual that publicly removed the public declaration of “uncleanness” that had hung over him since acquiring the disease. Mark does not specifically tell us that he did so – but neither could he have spoken freely in any community had he not gone to the priest. So Jesus' fame spread even farther. And the leper's example of faith remains known to us to this day.
Close with individual prayer, followed by Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Comments