Home Homilies Michael Whelan SM, PhD Gospel for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (11 February 2018)

Gospel for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (11 February 2018)

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45 – NRSV)

Introductory notes

General

Matthew 8:1-4 and Luke 5:12-16 depend on Mark here.

“The healing of the leper (1:40–45), the only such healing in Mark, seems almost like an awkward appendix to the two summaries of healings and exorcisms (1:34, 39). The text would flow very smoothly from 1:39 to 2:1, with Jesus travelling throughout Galilee and then returning to Capernaum. The story lacks the specific location of the other mighty works in this section (in a synagogue, in the house of Simon and Andrew). Yet it is the most vivid of the narratives thus far. In contrast to those healed previously (the demoniac and Simon’s mother-in-law), the leper is shown in action by the use of three closely linked participles: beseeching, falling to his knees, and making a request. Moreover, his request (‘make me clean’) is explicit. The language of requesting and falling on one’s knees attributes a virtually divine status to Jesus, as does the statement that through an act of his will he can effect healing. Leprosy, or the various skin diseases included in the term, was the most dreaded of all diseases because it separated people from family and community and thus constituted a ‘living death’. Indeed, rabbinic sayings compare the cure of leprosy to raising the dead (a divine prerogative). …. The evangelist may well have placed this narrative here as a christological paradigm for the subsequent narratives. Jesus, the stronger one predicted by John (1:7), has power over the dreaded leprosy, and yet he is a figure of compassion who, for the sake of a suffering human, will violate ritual laws. Like the healed leper, those in Mark’s community who have been touched by the life-giving power of Jesus are to become missionaries proclaiming and broadcasting ‘the word’ far and wide. This narrative also prepares for the controversies of 2:1–3:6, which will end with the first explicit plan to kill Jesus (3:6) precisely because he violated the Sabbath.” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002, 91.)

Specific

A leper: From the Greek leptein meaning “peel off”. This could imply any number of skin diseases. It is not to be taken as the disease we have come to know as Hansen’s disease. The passage, together with Matthew 8:1-4 and Luke 5:12-16 – which are dependent on Mark’s account – and the story of the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, are the only occasions where it is said that Jesus healed “lepers”. Leviticus 13-14 treats of “lepers” at some length: “There the Hebrew term ṣāraʿat also describes a fungus that affects fabrics and houses (Lev 13:47–58; 14:13–45). In the OT ‘leprosy’ is frequently regarded as a punishment for sin (Num 12:10–15; cf. Deut 28:27, 35; 2 Kgs 5:25–27; 2 Chr 26:16–21). According to Lev 13:45–46 the person with a leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and have disheveled hair, and shall live alone with a dwelling ‘outside the camp, and cry out “unclean, unclean”.’ Physical contact with such people rendered a person ‘unclean’ too. Leprosy in the strict sense seems to have spread to the Near East from India ca. 300 B.C.E., and so it could have existed in Palestine at the time of Jesus. Leprosy was thought to be like death (most likely because of the pallor of the person and the isolation from community), and a cure of leprosy was considered as marvelous as raising the dead (Num 12:10–12; 2 Kgs 5:7).” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, op cit, 88.)

Moved with pity: There is some disagreement overt the translation here. Most favour “pity” or “compassion”. “This (ie “compassion”) translates the participle splanchnistheis, which is one of the more disputed textual readings in Mark. The root of the verb (the noun is splanchnon) designates the seat of affective feeling and emotion (our ‘guts’), and is often translated ‘heart’. Some Western manuscripts read orgistheis (‘being angered’), and on the principle of lectio difficilior potior (the more difficult reading is to be preferred) many commentators translate ‘being angered’. The argument is that copyists (embarrassed at the anger of Jesus) would more likely change ‘anger’ to ‘compassion’ than vice versa. In favor of ‘moved with compassion’, however, are the weight of the best manuscripts and the fact that copyists have not altered other passages that present Jesus as angry (3:5; 10:14). Moreover, Jesus appears as compassionate in two other healing narratives (6:34; 8:2) and in curing the possessed boy (9:22).” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, op cit, 89.)

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him: Jesus’ compassion prompts him to violate the ritual laws as laid down in Leviticus – see above. This is one of many occasions in the Gospels where Jesus places compassion for people ahead of cultural and religious law and custom. It is very clear where his priorities lay. Still, he orders the man to show himself to the priests as the law demands. “But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” “Commands and prescriptions seem to have little power in this narrative. Rather, the humanity and compassion of Jesus and the experience of freedom that the healed man enjoys are the main centers of attention.” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, op cit, 91.)

Reflection

Today’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ healing of the man with “leprosy” – Mark 1:40-45. The word leprosy comes from the Greek word leptein meaning “peel off”. We should not assume it means Hansen’s disease, as we have come to know leprosy. In the Bible it can mean any skin disease. It was virtually a death sentence, not because the disease itself would kill the person, but because the person so afflicted was ostracized from the community. “According to Lev 13:45–46 the person with a leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and have disheveled hair, and shall live alone with a dwelling ‘outside the camp, and cry out “unclean, unclean”.’ Physical contact with such people rendered a person ‘unclean’ too.” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002, 88.) In Rabbinic literature of the time, a healing from “leprosy” was compared to rising from the dead.

It is one thing to have a clearly visible condition that requires healing. It is something else to have a condition that is not so visible yet requires healing. Are you aware of anything about yourself that calls for healing?

Jean Vanier – by any reckoning one of the greatest human beings of the twentieth century – writes: “Christian doctrine on the wounded heart, or original sin, appears to me the one reality which is easily verified. It would be an error to believe that if there were no oppressive parents, if there was no oppressive society, then we would have only beautiful children, loving, happy, integrated within themselves. No, in the heart of each of us, there is division, there is fear, there is fragility; there is a defence system which protects our vulnerability, there is flight from pain, there is evil and there is darkness.” (Jean Vanier, Man and Woman He Made Them, St. Paul Publications, 1985, 18.)

Unlike the lepers of biblical times who were cast out by the community, our own lack of awareness and/or honesty concerning our need for healing, brings with it a certain “casting out”. We become alienated from ourselves, from others, from God and from the world at large because “there is a defence system which protects our vulnerability, there is flight from pain, there is evil and there is darkness”. When “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched” the leper, the man was not only freed from his debilitating skin condition, more importantly he was set free within himself – “he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word”.

The touch of Jesus can be found in the truth – anywhere, everywhere, all the time. Dare to face it! Our evasion of the truth about ourselves is an evasion of Jesus’ outstretched hand: “When I discover that I am poor, that I am confused, that you call me by my name, that you love me, then there is the moment of transformation.” (Jean Vanier, op cit, 80.)