Six Sunday Ordinary

Sixth Sunday Ordinary
January 12, 2006

"The one who bears the sore of leprosy... shall declare himself unclean... (and) shall dwell apart....” (Leviticus 13). "Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God," (1 Cor 10:31) “See that you tell no one anything, but (do)... what Moses prescribed;...” (Mark 1:40-45)

In the Torah Moses tells the people about how to deal with the dreaded disease of leprosy, declaring oneself unclean and staying apart from the people presumably so that it was not spread to others. Isolating was all that anyone knew to do to protect the community. Only in the past few decades has a treatment become available and it was learned that the disease is not highly contagious. Such a disease was also considered to be the result of God's anger at the unfortunate victim. This passage is a good example of the need for caution in taking the Bible "literally" or as an infallible scientific authority.

Jesus has compassion for a man with leprosy who is pleading to be healed. Without contradicting Moses' law on the matter, Jesus nevertheless does not avoid contact with one who would have been considered unclean by his contemporaries. Instead he touches him and the person is immediately returned to health. He then is told to go and observe the legal requirement to be declared clean by the religious authorities. It does not seem to be part of Jesus' agenda to undermine the established spiritual authority. He said in another place that he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.

Jesus, as often in Mark' s gospel, cautions him not to tell anyone about what has happened. But the man goes away unable to contain his excitement and talks about it with anyone who will listen so that Jesus was mobbed wherever he went. Various explanations have been offered about why Jesus often wants people not to talk about their miraculous encounters with him. Perhaps he knew that we are inclined to do exactly the opposite of what we are told, no matter what the issue. If you want something to get out, tell people it is a secret. If you want someone to act in a certain way, forbid it.

St. Paul remarks about not giving offense to anyone, secular or religious, regardless of their beliefs or point of view. Most of us have had the experience of being on the receiving end of this, treated as unworthy of belonging to the company of human beings or God. We might want to think about who we regard as "lepers". Most of us have people in our lives who we would rather avoid because they represent something "unclean", unacceptable or foreign. God's healing and compassionate touch, far from being owned by any group of true believers, is offered freely to anyone who longs for it.