Catechism Links [1]
CCC 1474: Living in Christ unites all believers in him
CCC 1939-1942: Human solidarity
CCC 2288-2291: Respect for health
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| “The Leper” by Alexandre Bida, c. 1880 |
Commentary:
Reading 1: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Commentary on Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
This section of Leviticus, part of the “Sanitary Laws,” deals with various skin blemishes. Should a person develop a lesion of the sort described, the person was declared “unclean,” in some cases ritually unclean, meaning they could not participate in communal worship. In other cases it disqualified the affected person from association with the community as a whole. Ironically, the Hebrew term does not refer to Hansen’s disease, currently called leprosy.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 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.
Commentary on Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
Psalm 32 is an individual song of thanksgiving, rejoicing for the one whose sins are forgiven. The psalmist gives thanks for God’s saving work, emphasizing that only the Lord can deliver man from sin. Placed here, following the Mosaic instruction to cast out the unclean and the understanding that this condition was caused by falling into sin, the song takes on a deeper meaning for those who were healed through God’s mercy.
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Reading II: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Commentary on 1 Cor 10:31-11:1
St. Paul has, in verses previous to this selection, presented a dialogue about the dietary laws, specifically regarding the prohibition against eating meat offered in sacrifice (see Leviticus 7:21). St. Paul reiterates that Christ made these laws non-binding (cf. Mark 7:18b-19: “Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?”) He focuses on serving Christ on these occasions with acts of love and generosity. He concludes with a summary of this exhortation asking that the community imitate his own behavior in which he imitates Christ.
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Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
Commentary on Mk 1:40-45
St. Mark’s account of this incident is almost identical to that of St. Luke (see Luke 5:12-16). This healing occurs after the leper demonstrates faith that Jesus can accomplish this feat, even though there are only two times in Old Testament scripture when this was done (Numbers 12:10-15; 2 Kings 5:1-14). In this account of Jesus curing the leper, we see two remarkable details. First, it was Hebrew law that those designated as “unclean” could not approach anyone closer than about ten feet. This leper was clearly much closer. He was close enough to Jesus that he “stretched out his hand, and touched him.” Not just with a word was this leper made clean. The Lord touched him, which by Hebrew law was taboo. In one action the Lord demonstrates his power over the disease and his authority over the law.
Jesus asks the leper not to tell anyone how this was accomplished, but to show the Hebrew priest he was clean and be allowed to rejoin the community. The leper did not do this, so the Lord is mobbed by those seeking God’s favor. Unlike the account in St. Luke, Jesus does not embrace the notoriety but withdraws to deserted places. Nonetheless, people seek him out, "...coming to him from everywhere.”
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Reflection:
Have you ever had a serious argument with a person you love and then, before having resolved the difference, had to sit down at the dinner table to eat a meal? It is not a comfortable situation. In fact, if the argument is serious enough, neither party can eat at such a time. Although only one of us eats, the same is true of the Eucharistic table if we have pushed our Lord away through unreconciled sin.
When we listen to the scripture passages about ritual purity offered today, what is not obvious is the relationship we are expected to have with the Father. We hear Leviticus tell us that a person with various rashes and diseases of the skin was cast out and see how those laws were followed even in Jesus' day in the reading from St. Mark’s Gospel. We shake our heads and think, how archaic. God was not punishing these people (which is what the Hebrews believed). The reason they were outcast had less to do with fear of contagion than fear of ritual impurity. A person afflicted this way must be out of favor (grace) with God. The disease was an outward sign of that impurity.
But Christ changed that. He came to fulfill the Law and Prophets and in doing so put these practices in their proper perspective. The law, practiced as it was, was intended to demonstrate a discipline of the faith. Nothing that enters a person from the outside makes that person unclean. It is what comes from within (Mark 7:15) – hatred, jealousy, lust, greed, and cruelty – these things contaminate a person’s relationship with God.
In curing the leper Jesus removed a misinterpreted outward sign of the man’s fall from grace. He did this because the man professed his faith in Christ, which would have been impossible had he not seen the Lord with grace-filled eyes. To use an analogy, it would be as if we looked at a person with a physical deformity and thought that person was mentally inferior. We do not want to minimize what Christ did for the man – he gave the leper his life back. Being outcast in that age was crippling in its effects on the human person.
What is truly important in all of this is the expectation that we, through our own sinful actions, should not place a barrier between us and the Lord. If we want that intimate relationship with God that gives us access to his incredible peace and love, we must shed the interior stains that make us “unclean.” It is those things that cause us to be uncomfortable as we approach the dinner table of the Lord in the Eucharist. When we feel that pang as we walk forward, we know we have great need to reconcile with him. It does not matter if we have been to the confessional the day before. If that feeling is there, the source is a cancer that needs to be excised. We need to find the source and offer that to God in great contrition.
Today we have been offered a glimpse of what God needs from us so that we might have that near perfect relationship with him (it can only be perfect when we stand with him in heaven). Let us look deeply within ourselves today and ask his forgiveness for our failings. Truly we are not worthy to receive him – but only say the word and I shall be healed.
Pax
In other years on this date: Optional Memorial for Our Lady of Lourdes
[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, Published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014
[2] The pictured today is “The Leper” by Alexandre Bida, c. 1880
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