Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 11, 2018 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Lev 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45]A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them." The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. [Mark]
Over the past several weeks we have been following developments in the Gospel According to Mark in the daily scriptures. The Sunday cycle (B, this year) is also following Mark but not necessarily in the same order or same way. This Sunday's passage jumps back to the beginning of Jesus' ministry in which Jesus is portrayed as having power over one of the most devastating health problems one could have in his time: leprosy. Biblical "leprosy" was not necessarily what is known in our times as Hansen's disease. It could be any number of skin conditions, and reflected the concern with ritual surface purity in stricter Jewish observance. Jesus shows not only that he has power over the illness, but by touching the leper, he could have made himself "unclean." The admonition to the leper not to tell anyone about it is part of the larger agenda in the Gospel According to Mark whereby Jesus is not truly known until his passion and death.
Leprosy created isolation from family and community and reduced a person to begging. We may recall the ten lepers that Jesus heals (Luke 17:11-19) who went about in groups begging. By healing the leper Jesus not only cures the illness but restores the leper to human community.
What catches my attention is the leper's plea, "If you wish, you can make me clean." This plea may come to us. We have an expression - "social leper" - that conveys the isolation of someone who either by their conduct or else by belonging to a certain class of persons becomes a "leper" in society. One might recall the early concerns about AIDS. The plea of the leper touches Jesus' compassion. Do we know any social lepers? Have we heard their pleas for restoration? These 'lepers' may only be in regard to us personally, or they may be the victims of social shunning. Are we afraid of what "others" will think if we reach out to these lepers? Jesus showed not only compassion but courage in his actions. Those are two essential virtues for a committed Christian. It's something to think about. AMEN