Our first reading told us that, in Jesus’ times, after a
priest’s examination;
When a person has on the skin of his
body a swelling or an eruption or a spot,
he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He
shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside
the camp.
And, in order to prevent any further contact with ordinary,
healthy members of society:
The leprous person who has the disease
shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, he shall cover
his upper lip and shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.'
As a result, a leprous person was -- in the popular
estimation -- as good as dead so far as normal society and normal human
contacts were concerned.
Now this law of exclusion embodies a divine principle, both
Jewish and Christian, whereby the good of the whole transcends that of the
individual, and the individual good should be conducive to the good of the
whole. This was one of the guiding
lights for St. Paul throughout his missionary labours, as we heard in the
second reading:
I try to please everyone in everything,
not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Today however, this principle is neither clearly understood
nor readily accepted.
Consequently, even though the common good is at stake,
nevertheless, today, it is mainly religious bodies who alone have sufficient
conviction to resist present western hedonistic tendencies such as abortion, and
social doctrines presenting homosexuality as an alternative life-style to that
of heterosexual love and marriage.
Heterosexual love in marriage is the bedrock of human society,
fulfilling the spouses and serving the whole human race through the children
they raise as wholesome family members.
Homosexuality, on the other hand, when practised as an optional, sexual
life style -- as distinct from friendship, an emotional and spiritual
but non-sexual relationship --
satisfies only the passions of the individuals concerned at the expense of
society which is thereby debilitated: professional surrogate mothers, and frustrated: children in unnatural homes -- as experience shows at home and abroad.
The rabbis considered the cleansing of one suffering from
leprosy to be as impossible as raising the dead, and a story concerning Elijah
(2 Kings 5:6-7) shows how clearly Israel and the ancient world recognized that
none but divine power could cure it:
(Naaman brought a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel), ‘When the king of Israel read the
letter, he tore his clothes and
said, ‘Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure
a man of his leprosy?’
However, St. Mark in today’s Gospel reading told us that:
A leper came to Jesus, imploring Him,
and kneeling said, "If You will, You can make me clean." Moved
with pity, He stretched out His hand, touched him, and said to him, "I will;
be clean."
There, we can recognise the faith which sustained the leper;
for, risking public disapproval and official punishment, with humble confidence
and firm faith he sought out Jesus and begged Him: ‘If You wish, You can make me clean’. In response, Jesus reached out and, touching the man said,
“I do will it”; whereupon the man was completely cleansed of his leprosy. Jesus’ very deliberate touch restored the
leper’s contagion! Holiness curing the
contagion of sin! The very essence of Jesus’ Gospel of Good News and
salvation!!
If we continue to look more closely at Jesus, trying to
understand and learn from His human attitude, it can be of much help and might save
us from many errors.
Our modern Western society is so ostentatiously committed
to human rights -- the rights of the individual -- that the good of the whole
is easily overlooked; and individuals become, in ever-growing measure, out
of control, to the detriment of both the security and the cohesion of
society as a whole. This is the case
because individual rights are only valid – as we have noted -- to the extent that they are conducive to the
well-being of the whole of society, and the validity of this principle is being
vindicated in our day by the fact that now, at last, the social evil of
abortion is becoming manifest to all, as the European birth rate is
unable to support the continuing viability of its member nations: several of
which are dying out, dying on their feet, so to speak. Again, lack of discipline in our schools –
due in no small degree to the doctrinal application of so-called human
rights of children who are, as yet, unable to truly appreciate that rights
and duties are inevitably co-related -- is leading to an educational and social
crisis; because any educational system that is not able to teach its children
and students self-control and personal responsibility by the imposition of
recognized and necessary discipline cannot produce true citizens. Indeed, such a system is liable to turn out an
ever-growing number of young adults who are a potential danger to their
neighbours and to society as a whole, because their emotions are not
sufficiently subject to their control, and the only rights they are aware of
are their own ‘personal’ rights, rights which -- they like to think -- should
in no way be restricted or overruled by any ‘supposed rights’ of the larger
body of society.
And now, taking up our Gospel reading again, we heard
there, that Jesus -- having cured the man -- warned him sternly not to tell
other people about it; however:
The
man went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news.
One can easily think-up excuses for the man cured; but, in
fact, his publicising of the cure made things much more difficult for Jesus,
because it meant that:
Jesus
could no longer openly enter a town, but (had
to be) out in desolate places.
Before this incident it was the leper who had been obliged
to remain in deserted places; but now
the former leper was free to mingle with men, while Jesus had to behave as
if He were the leprous one, being unable continue His saving mission in the
towns, and villages of that area.
That incident is again a helpful insight for us in our
understanding of Our Blessed Lord Who later on, dear People of God, would even
become ‘sin’ and ‘a curse’ for our sakes!!
For our sake He made Him to be
sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the Law, by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree”. (Galatians 3:13)
Jesus had come to cure the whole of Israel -- and
ultimately the whole of mankind -- from the supreme uncleanness of sin, but the
cleansed-leper was only able to think of his own cleansed body. Jesus had cured him, and he felt he had to tell others of what had happened
to himself; and, as a result of such forbidden praise, we are told that:
Jesus could
no longer openly enter a town.
Of course, people today like to think that because the man was
obviously so grateful to Jesus, so happy in his new-found health, he is therefore
not to be blamed. But in fact, although that
man’s ignorance of Jesus’ overall purpose is perfectly understandable and
blameless, nevertheless, the fact that He ignored Jesus’ express command
to ‘keep quiet’ turned out to be positively damaging for others: because He -- the
Healer, the Master -- was no longer able to continue His healing, saving,
mission in that vicinity.
Dear People of God, what unknown harm do our sins, our
failures to obey the Lord’s commands in our lives, cause for others in need of
God’s saving help and strength?
At this point we should call to mind Our Blessed Lord’s
words which explain His own Personal attitude in all such matters of obedience,
an attitude that would lead Him to embrace death out of loving obedience to His
Father and for our salvation:
I know that His (My Father’s) commandment
is eternal life! (John 12:50)
Jesus came to take away the sins of the world, and our
personal needs and desires are but elements, however important to us, in God’s
overarching universal purpose, and they must, therefore, be subject to its
requirements.
As in the case of today’s cured-leper, that steadfast and unnoticeable-to-men
obedience which God wants above all, calls for a moral strength, a humble selflessness,
and a devout faith of a much superior order, which, far from meeting with human
praise, can often enough lead to disapproval
and judgemental words, “how ungrateful!”.
Because we are so very self-centred, we need to constantly
remind ourselves that none can cure mankind from the malady of sin but Jesus
the Christ, sent by God His Father for that specific purpose; and, that Jesus --
though now in heaven -- is ceaselessly at work by His Spirit in and through His
Church; and if we want to be His co-workers, we have to resolutely seek
only His glory, await patiently His will, proclaim always His goodness.
In His time Jesus was regarded as a rebel because He was never intimidated by the expectations of contemporary popular thinking nor by the pressures of self-serving officialdom; and we, as His disciples, should likewise practice independence from the pagan attitudes of people around us whilst maintaining, with Him, a right humility before lawful authorities established for the good governance of society. Throughout His life Jesus recognized His Father as the exclusive Ruler over all the decisive events of His life on earth, as the only Guide for all His Personal attitudes, and as the supreme Goal for all His Personal actions and decisions. And so for us, the true good of the individual, though included in God’s plan for the good of the whole, is nevertheless subordinate to that good of the whole. And that balance is an integral and necessary part of the true and ultimate good prescribed and wanted by God the Father and proclaimed by Our Lord Jesus Christ; a good that we, as living members of His Body, have to seek, work and pray for, in the power and under the inspiration of His most Holy Spirit of Truth and Love.
