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Posted on 02/10/2024 10:02:01 AM PST by fidelis
In this weekend’s readings, a healed leper disobeys Jesus and spreads the news of his miraculous cure everywhere, impeding the Lord’s ministry. Why did Jesus tell him to be quiet about the healing? What is the role of miracles in the Jesus’ ministry, and in the life of the Church today?
1. The First Reading for this weekend’s masses was obviously chosen to provide the background for understanding leprosy as it was experienced by the Jews and other ancient peoples.
Reading 1: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean, the priest shall declare him unclean by reason of the sore on his head. "The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
This Reading comes from what I call the Cleanliness Code. The Book of Leviticus contains three major bodies of religious law or "codes": the Sacrificial Code (1-7), the Cleanliness Code (11-15), and the Holiness Code (17-26). In the system of Leviticus, all persons and objects were classified according to two categories: cleanliness and holiness. Something could be either clean or unclean, holy or profane. Only a clean thing could be made holy, and an unclean thing could only be profane. However, a clean object could be either profane or holy. The whole legislation was a complex system of symbolism aimed at teaching about the contagious nature of sinfulness and the connection between sin and death.
Skin diseases of all sorts were a major cause of mortality in the ancient world, especially in Egypt, the land from which the ancient Israelites escaped.
In the Pentateuch, God gave Moses extensive instructions for the quarantining and observation of those afflicted with leprosy and other contagious skin infections. Obviously these regulations were for the good of the community: infected persons were a public health risk, and had to be kept separate.
However, for the infected person, the experience was one of misery. Considered a threat to those around them, he was cut off from normal social contact, even with family. Moreover, he could not approach the sanctuary to worship (the sanctuary was the most public place, where the disease could be most easily transmitted), therefore he felt cut off from God. This religious dimension of leprosy/skin disease is often overlooked. Leprosy disrupted communion with both God and man.
Although the Scriptures recognize that leprosy and other skin diseases were not the result of moral offense on the part of the sufferer, at the same time, these kind of diseases were viewed as a powerful symbol of the effects of sin. Sin is a clinging contagion that contaminates the sinner and those he contacts. It destroys human relationships and our communion with God. Sin is a spiritual “leprosy.”
2. The Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
The Responsorial Psalm takes up the symbolic meaning of the disease. Verses 3-4 of the Psalm (unfortunately not recited in the liturgy) make the connection:
3 When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
The psalmist is experiencing physical effects of his sin: “When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away…” The “wasting away” of the body is a good description of the effects of leprosy.
In the Scripture, it is clear that physical suffering sometimes is not the result of the sufferer’s sin (e.g. in the case of Job), but at other times it is the result of his sin (John 5:14; Romans 1:26-27). It is highly politically incorrect in today’s culture, however, to point out the physical effects of sin.
Around 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with some form or stage of lung cancer each year. In part as a response, smoking is banned in all public places in Ohio. Many states have similar laws.
On the other hand, 19 million new cases of STDs are diagnosed each year—the majority of these effect young women, roughly ages 15–30. Half of all sexual active (outside of marriage) adults in America will eventually contract a sexually transmitted disease. But are we going to get a ban on promiscuity? Is the government or the school system going to encourage self-control and marital fidelity? You know the answer.
Sin also causes psychological dysfunctions—in fact, sin is itself can be viewed as a psychological dysfunction. It is an illness of soul that can manifest itself in illness of mind and body.
The Psalmist hails the curative effects of confession. A forgiving God is able to heal body and soul.
3. The Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Brothers and sisters, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
St. Paul exhorts us to take into account the effect that our actions and example have on others. “Avoid giving offense,” St. Paul says. Therefore, it’s not enough to be “within our rights”—our deeds also have to build other people up.
A classic example is the use of alcohol: there may be nothing wrong about enjoying a beer or glass of wine in moderation. However, when I worked in urban evangelism, I knew many pastors and lay ministers who would not imbibe at all, in order not to weaken the resolve of so many young Christians who were struggling to get free from substance abuse.
Our concern has to be “not seeking [our] own benefit, but that of the many.” The way we spend our money, the entertainments that we choose, the places we shop or dine—none of these should become the occasion of scandal to others.
4. The Gospel Reading, 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. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
In the Gospel Reading, we find a leper who, in fact, sought his “own benefit” after being healed rather than obeying Jesus and doing what was good for “the many.”
Coming to Jesus, the man begs to be healed. The Lord is overcome with compassion and cannot deny the man his request, but warns him sternly to remain quiet, and go fulfill the law.
Jesus may have had several reasons for this. He may have hoped to give witness to his identity to the Temple priests. Public authorities like the priesthood were not impressed with mass enthusiastic movements, but people quietly being healed and modestly coming to fulfill the divine regulations for worship—this would be more persuasive for them.
Our Lord was strategic in his ministry. He knew that crowds were easily swayed and fickle. He spent the majority of his time and effort invested in a small group of men, his apostles. His public ministry with the crowds was more the opportunity to train his apostles than an end in itself.
As a result of the disobedience of the man, Jesus becomes a “celebrity”—something he did not desire (cf. Matt 4:5-7). Instead of being able to preach in the synagogues, where the attention would be on the content of his teaching, he’s mobbed by curiosity-seekers who want to see another miracle (cf. John 4:48).
Our Lord displays, throughout his ministry, an ambivalence toward working miracles. He often tries to keep them quiet, and at times seems almost reluctant to perform them. Perhaps because he knows that the effect of miracles is less than what people think.
I saw a few miracles during my years doing urban evangelism. One middle-age man who had some contact with our church was dying of a severe lung disease in the local hospital. My co-pastor went up and baptized the man on his death bed in the ICU. Two days later, the doctors were unable to find any sign of disease in the man! Mystified, they released him, and for about three to six months he was the most faithful church-goer we had ever seen, showing up to the church most days of the week to help out, praying and studying the Bible, and playing the drums in our praise band (very enthusiastically, I might mention!) every Sunday.
Yet after several months of this, he had a dramatic dispute with his wife in which he felt wronged, and we never saw him in church again.
Last year I got in a long discussion with an atheist who had grown up evangelical and then left the faith. One of his objections to God's existence was that God didn't supernaturally reveal himself to everyone at once. He felt God would definitely do that if he really existed.
As a matter of fact, there have been public incidents where God revealed himself openly. Besides the miracles recorded in Scripture, there are more recent events: the dancing of the sun at Fatima was witnessed by tens of thousands, and reported in secular papers. More recently still, the Blessed Virgin appeared publicly to over half a million people over the space of two years in Zeitoun, Egypt.
Despite the remarkable and public nature of these demonstrations of supernatural power, they did not lead to mass conversions. In response to my atheist friend, I would say, "There have been times when God has publicly, openly revealed himself in supernatural ways to huge numbers of people. But it doesn't make any lasting difference."
Miracles can be a consolation to those who love God, but they don’t always bear the lasting fruit in people’s lives that we think they will. Just because you see something extraordinary does not mean you suddenly want to live a holy life. And if you don’t want to live a holy life, you will eventually find an excuse to walk away from God.
The real leprosy is not external but internal. What keeps us separate from communion with God and others is not something outside of ourselves. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist—if we have faith—is able to change us this weekend, to heal the disease inside, to give us the love that thinks not of “our own benefit” but that of “the many” who surround us: our spouses, our children and parents, our fellow parishioners, co-workers, who also need our love and the healing that comes from Jesus.
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it is quite interesting - we must acknowledge that we are with sin and humbly ask God to clean us - fully trusting that He can, but we must not presume He will as He may have other plans for us.
That, I must admit, is hard.
God will always cleanse us from our sins if we confess them with a sincere and repentant heart, but he does not take away our propensity for sin in general or for a particular sin we will continue to struggle with. Some think this might be the "thorn in the side" that St. Paul says he was struggling with in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9:
To keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
First Reading:
From: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Tests for Leprosy
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[1] The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, [2] “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.
[44] He is leprous man, he is unclean; the priest must pronounce him unclean; his disease is on his head. [45] “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.’ [46] He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp."
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Commentary:
13:1-14:57. These chapters contain the regulations to do with leprosy, its treatment, and purification after contact with the disease. They cover leprosy in persons (13:1-46; 14:1-32), in clothing and in accommodation (13:47-59; 14:33-53); the cleansing of the poor is specially facilitated (14:21-32). The section ends by looking at the different kinds of leprosy (14:54-57). 13:1-59. According to the state of knowledge at the time, there were various indications for this terrible disease. Although some of the data given here may be of interest to historians of medicine, there was generally confusion between leprosy and other skin diseases. However, the fact that people suffering from these diseases are unsightly was sufficient reason to declare them unclean.
Because leprosy was an infectious disease, every effort had to be made to keep it from spreading. It was widely held as being a punishment for some sin. Indeed, in the case of Miriam, who was leprous for a while, we are told that she got the disease because she had been murmuring against her brother Moses (cf. Num 12:1-10). Also, the suffering servant of Yahweh is portrayed as having leprosy, an affliction God sent him on account of our sins (cf. Is 53:4). And Job, who had something like leprosy, was accused by his Mends of having committed some terrible, hidden sin: it was the only explanation they could think of for his sorry state.
Life was very different for a person with leprosy. He had to live in settlements or camps away from towns. When travelling about, he had to warn people he was coming by shouting to show he was unclean; he wore his clothes torn and hair uncombed: all this was meant to make him stand out, so that people could avoid him easily. We often come across wretched lepers in the Gospels, on whom Jesus has compassion and whom he makes clean (cf. Mt 8:2-3; Lk 17:l2-14): the curing of lepers was one of the signs of the messianic times prophesied in the Old Testament (Mt 11:5). And our Lord gives the apostles power to cure lepers (cf. Mt 10:8).
The New Vulgate abbreviates the original Hebrew text, especially 13:52-53.
From: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Practical Solutions (Continuation)
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[31] So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. [32] Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, [33] 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.
[1] Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
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Commentary:
31. In everything he does--even in apparently unimportant things, like eating and drinking--a Christian should seek the glory of God, by always acting with the best of intentions. In the case of meals, the practice of saying grace before and after helps us to be mindful of God in that situation.
“When you sit down to eat,” St Basil says, commenting on this verse, “pray. When you eat bread, do so thanking him for being so generous to you. If you drink wine, be mindful of him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in sickness. When you dress, thank him for his kindness in providing you with clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself at God’s feet and adore him who in his wisdom has arranged things in this way. Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator” ("Hom. in Julittam Martyrem").
1. This piece of advice forms a conclusion to the previous chapter St Paul proposes himself as a model not because he is the exemplar of all virtues but because by imitating his life and following in his footsteps we are following those of Christ, who is our only proper model. The same applies to all other saints their lives teach us to practise the Christian virtues. "To look on the lives of those who have faithfully followed Christ is to be inspired with a new reason for seeking the city which is to come (cf. Heb 13:14 and 11:10), while at the same time we are taught to know a most safe path by which, despite the vicissitudes of the world, and in keeping with the state of life and condition proper to each of us, we will be able to arrive at perfect union with Christ, that is, holiness God shows to men, in a vivid way, his presence and his face in the lives of those companions of ours in the human condition who are more perfectly transformed into the image of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 3:18)” (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 50).
From: Mark 1:40-45
The Curing of a Leper
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[40] And a leper came to Him (Jesus), beseeching Him, and kneeling said to Him, "If You will, You can make me clean." [41] Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." [42] And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. [43] And He sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, [44] and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." [45] But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and 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.
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Commentary:
40-44. Leprosy was seen as a punishment from God (cf. Numbers 12:10-15). The disappearance of the disease was regarded as one of the blessings of the messianic times (Isaiah 35:8; cf. Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22). Because leprosy was contagious, the Law declared that lepers were impure and that they transmitted impurity to those who touched them and to places they entered. Therefore, they had to live apart (Numbers 5:2; 12:14ff) and to show that they were lepers by certain external signs. On the rite of purification, see the note on Matthew 8:4.
[ The note on Matthew 8:4 states:
4. According to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 14), if a leper is cured of his disease, he should present himself to a priest, who will register the cure and give him a certificate which he needs to be reintegrated into the civil and religious life of Israel. Leviticus also prescribes the purifications and sacrifice he should offer. Jesus' instruction to the leper is, then, in keeping with the normal way of fulfilling what the laws laid down. ]
The passage shows us the faithful and confident prayer of a man needing Jesus' help and begging Him for it, confident that, if Our Lord wishes, He can free him from the disease (cf. Matthew 8:2). "This man prostrated himself on the ground, as a sign of humility and shame, to teach each of us to be ashamed of the stains of his life. But shame should not prevent us from confessing: the leper showed his wound and begged for healing. If You will, he says, You can make me clean; that is, he recognized that the Lord had the power to cure him" (St. Bede, "In Marci Evangelium Expositio, in loc.").
On the discretion and prudence Jesus required regarding His person, see the note on Mark 1:34 and Matthew 9:30.
[ The note on Mark 1:34 states:
34. Demons possess a supernatural type of knowledge and therefore they recognize Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 1:24). Through the people they possess they are able to publish this fact. But Our Lord, using His divine powers, orders them to be silent. On other occasions He also silences His disciples (Mark 8:30; 9:9), and He instructs people whom He has cured not to talk about their cure (Mark 1:4; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). He may have acted in this way to educate the people away from a too human and political idea of the Messiah (Matthew 9:30). Therefore, He first awakens their interest by performing miracles and gradually, through His preaching, gives them a clearer understanding of the kind of Messiah He is.
Some Fathers of the Church point out that Jesus does not want to accept, in support of the truth, the testimony of him who is the father of lies. ]
[ The note on Matthew 9:30 states:
30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because His plan was to gradually manifest Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did He want the crowd to start hailing Him as Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim Him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (John 6:14-15): "When the people saw the sign which He had done, they said, `This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the hills by Himself." ]
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