RE: 02.12.15~Readings for Sunday, February 15th 2015 + Commentaries

Commentary – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

February 15, 2015
First Reading – 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.”
Commentary
LEVITICUS, A BOOK WORTH DISCOVERING
The Book of Leviticus does not make for easy reading: with its twenty-seven chapters of regulations, often very detailed, its singular focus on the priesthood, and its rules for worship and daily life aimed at remaining faithful to the covenant with God. We are clearly in the presence of a particular theological current, very clerical, in which the priests (the Levites, the so-called priestly class) are the privileged intermediaries between God and the people. The Book of Leviticus is very different from the Book of Deuteronomy from which we read for the fourth Sunday in ordinary time, which belongs to another theological school in which it is the prophets who are the voice of God.

But after the Exile, when Israel no longer had a king nor prophets, it was the priests who thankfully assumed the responsibility for the spiritual and even political survival of the people of the Covenant. Because for them, (and herein lies the profound beauty of this book if we are willing to go beyond first impressions and   read between the lines) the Covenant offered by God to Israel is a great honor and a vital necessity: the Holy God (that is, the All-Other) offers a true communion of love to this insignificant people, and it is therefore extremely important for Israel to remain worthy of the encounter with the Holy God.

We rarely read from the Book of Leviticus, but it is proposed for this Sunday as an introduction to the Gospel story about Jesus’ healing of a leper. To understand the importance of this miracle we need to know the context in which Jesus acted, since the requirements of the Levitical law concerning lepers were still in force in his day.

These requirements seem harsh to us: when one has the misfortune to be ill it is additionally painful to be an outcast. The measures concerning leprosy were very stringent; when someone showed signs of an infectious skin disease he had to immediately present himself to the priest who conducted a formal examination and then decided whether to declare the person unclean. The declaration of impurity totally excluded the person from religious life, and therefore at the time, from all social life: to be impure meant that one was unfit for worship and barred from all contact with other members of the holy people who must do everything to preserve their purity. Thus excluded from the community of the living, the leper wore the signs of his own mourning (torn clothes, unkempt look): "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… 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... He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”

Job was a good example of this (see the text that we read last Sunday): finding himself struck with leprosy, he accepted the consequences and settled on the public landfill (Job 2.8); he was simply observing the requirements of the Book of Leviticus.

If the patient thought he was cured, he appeared again before the priest who conducted a second very thorough examination before declaring the person healed and once again pure, able to return to normal life. Various purification rites - sprinkling rites, baths and sacrifices - accompanied this reintegration.

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
Why was leprosy such a threat to social life? Probably because it was a highly contagious disease with no known treatment at the time and therefore it was wise to act prudently to protect the majority of the population. Here we have evidence of the hierarchy of priorities in Israel: the well being of the individual was secondary to the public good.

We should note that this is still sometimes the case today; we do not hesitate to quarantine infected persons in order to protect the public from possible bacterial contamination; and school children are sometimes asked to stay home if meningitis is suspected; in the case of avian flu or mad cow disease the systematic slaughter of animals is authorized to protect human beings. Although we recognize in the 21st century that a quarantined person experiences a real sense of exclusion we do not hesitate to enact such measures in the name of the greater public good.

Leprosy was also a threat to social life in Israel because it was thought that disease is always the consequence of sin: everyone knew that God is just, but with the arithmetic conception of distributive justice that prevailed at the time, the reasoning was that God’s justice meant that good people were rewarded in proportion to their merits and the wicked were punished according to a fair assessment of their sins. This concept, sometimes called the "logic of retribution" was without exception - to the point that illness was an automatic sign that a person had sinned: all the more reason to avoid this contagion if one wanted to remain pure and worthy of encountering the Holy God. This explains why the leper had to go to the priest (and not the doctor!) to report both the disease and the healing.

It seems that little had changed in Jesus' time since lepers still provoked the same revulsion and the same measures of exclusion. It took a long period of time for Revelation to teach us that the merciful God is attracted to the poor and destitute, and that no one is excluded - Jesus confirmed this in his words and actions.

****
Addendum
Leprosy was long considered a hopelessly incurable disease, to the point that any recovery was seen as miraculous. The story of Naaman, the Syrian general in the Second Book of Kings is revealing on this point: when he discovers that he has leprosy, he goes to see his king in Damascus and asks him to intervene on his behalf with the king of Israel because he has heard that there is in Israel a healer/prophet (Elisha). What interests us in the story of Naaman is the reaction of the king of Israel, for his reaction shows to what extent leprosy was considered an incurable scourge. When the king of Israel receives the letter from the king of Damascus saying, “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy”, he panics: “When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone for me to cure him of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” (2 Kings 6-7). Translate: “there is no way to save Naaman from his leprosy and the king of Damascus will turn against me for failing him; this will end in disaster; this is undoubtedly a way for him to forge a pretext to
attack me.”
 
Responsorial Psalm – 32.1-2, 5, 11
R/ 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.

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.
Commentary

THERE IS NOTHING ORDINARY ABOUT OUR DAILY LIFE
There are at least two lessons in this text: a theological one that should help us see our daily lives in a different light, and then a lesson on Christian conduct.

Theologically this text affirms that because God did not disdain to become one of us, no aspect of our daily lives is despicable. Since God became one of us, we can identify with God: to live for the glory of God means that each of our actions, even the most ordinary, has the potential to identify us with God. We can no longer say that human activity such as eating, drinking, or anything else is mundane! Nothing is contemptible or unworthy; each of our actions can be worthy of God. Since “the Word was made flesh”, as St. John says, we know that our whole life in the flesh can be a revelation of God. The mystery of the Incarnation is actually the wonder of the Incarnation, for our most ordinary gestures can now be lived with God.

However, according to Paul, these same gestures can also be obstacles for others: “Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God.” Paul is dealing once again with the problem facing new Christians with regards to the pagan custom of sacrificing to idols: meat sacrificed to idols was sold (at least in part) in the public market. Could a Christian eat this meat? (For more on this issue, see the commentary for last Sunday on 1 Corinthians 9.22:  Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B). However, the issue addresses a much larger question, that of the meaning of freedom. Chapters 6-11 of 1 Corinthians deal with Christian conduct, in which Paul repeats twice that: "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial" (6.12; 10.23). "Everything is lawful" is a way of saying that whoever believes in Jesus Christ does not live under a regime of obligations and prohibitions. For Paul this was a momentous discovery, since he had been raised in the highest respect and even love of Jewish law with all of its detailed, precise, meticulous commandments concerning circumcision, ceremonial washings, the Sabbath, and so on. All this had been abolished, for God demands none of this: no one can impose obligations on behalf of God, other than the law of love. As a faithful Jew, Paul believed that he was pleasing God by observing the six hundred and thirteen commandments listed by the doctors of the Law; when he became a Christian, he discovered that we are no longer "under the Law", as he says, but "under grace" (Rom 6.14).

EVERYTHING IS LAWFUL … BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS BENEFICIAL
This does not mean that freedom is a license to do as one pleases! "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial," says Paul. It is no good to do away with the Jewish law only to fall back into another set of obligations; in his letter to the Galatians, he insists: "For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5.1). Moreover, there is a commandment, one that should singularly guide all our actions: the commandment to love. Saint Augustine summarized Paul's doctrine in a maxim that should be our rule of thumb: "Love, and do what you will.” This means that we are free to take initiatives, free to choose the behavior that seems best for us in every circumstance of our lives, as long as we are always guided by one concern: concern for others. When Paul writes, "Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God," we could translate: "Avoid shocking others." In the verses preceding those for today, Paul says: "Everything is lawful, but not everything builds up" (10.23) meaning that not everything builds up the community: there are ways of acting and speaking that sow discord.

Later on in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul also talks about the use of spiritual gifts, and he gives one single criterion "Everything should be done for building up” (in the sense of the common good) (1 Cor 14.26); which is what he says here in different words: “not seeking my own benefit but that of the many.” 

It is not out of pride or boastfulness that Paul adds: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”; his is the wise advice of one who has already faced many difficulties: Paul, a Jew from a Greek culture, who has crossed from Judaism to Christianity knows that evangelization requires respecting everyone's differences: "Do as I do, always trying to adapt to everyone, not seeking my own benefit but that of the general public so that many may be saved. Take me as your model since my model is Christ." And Christ welcomes all, even the excluded, like the leper (in today’s Gospel).

To welcome without contempt, to adapt without denying one’s Christian identity: two excellent ways for us to daily live as Christians; yet we need to learn to discern how use this freedom: for this the Holy Spirit was given to us.

Gospel – 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.
Commentary
THE HEALING OF A LEPER
This is Jesus’ first missionary journey; until now he had been in Capernaum, which according to the evangelists was the city Jesus chose for the beginning of his public life; in Capernaum Jesus had performed many miracles, and had to tear himself away from those waiting to see him, saying, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.” And Mark adds: "So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee." It is therefore somewhere in Galilee, out of Capernaum, that a leper approaches Jesus.

There are actually two stories in this passage: the first, and most obvious, is the story of the miracle: the leper is healed, and both his skin and his social status are restored. But there is also another story, much larger and more critical: Jesus’ constant struggle to reveal the true face of God. For in taking the risk of touching the leper, Jesus made a bold, even scandalous move.

This is certainly where Mark wants to draw our attention because the words "clean/cleansing” appear four times in these few lines. Cleanliness or rather purity was a major concern of the time: one had to be pure in order to enter into relations with the Holy God, and therefore all members of the chosen people were very vigilant on this issue. The book of Leviticus (from which was taken our first reading for this Sunday) has many chapters on the rules of purity; and Mark himself, later in his Gospel says, "For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles [and beds]." (Mark 7.3-4).

This quest for purity logically led to the exclusion of all those who were considered unclean; and because at the time it was believed that the body mirrored the soul and that disease was the evidence of sin, all contact with the sick was carefully avoided for the sake of purity; we heard this in our first reading: "the one who bears the sore of leprosy…. shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” This means that when Jesus and the leper pass near each other, they should have avoided each other at all costs; it also means that in the time of Jesus someone could be excluded in the very name of God – a most terrifying thought!

Therefore the leper in this story should not have dared to approach Jesus and likewise Jesus should never have touched him; it took great audacity on the part of both to transgress the traditional exclusion, and it is from this double audacity that the miracle has been born.

The leper had probably heard of Jesus’ growing reputation; Mark says a little earlier that "his fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee." He addresses Jesus as if he were the Messiah: "kneeling down (he) begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean." Only before God does one fall to one’s knees, and secondly, at the time, everyone knew that when the Messiah came he would inaugurate the era of universal happiness: in the "new heavens and the new earth" promised by Isaiah, there would be no more weeping and no more crying (Is 65.19), and all who mourned would be comforted (Is 61.2). That's exactly what the leper asks of Jesus, the healing promised for messianic times; and Jesus meets his expectation (literally) “I do will it. Be made clean.”

Therefore, right from the outset, Jesus asserts himself as “the one they were awaiting”; later he will say to John the Baptist's disciples when they ask if he is the expected Messiah, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them" (Mt 11.4-5). The leper is truly poor: because of his illness as well as through his humble attitude, "If you wish, you can make me clean.” With such a leap of faith Jesus could act.

JESUS’ STRUGGLE AGIANST ALL FORMS OF EXCLUSION
But this healing is also the first of Jesus’ many struggles against all forms of exclusion: for the Good News that he proclaims and that the leper will hasten to spread is that no one can any longer be declared unclean and excluded in the name of God. The new world in which "lepers are cleansed" is really "good news" for the poor:  not only are the sick and lepers cured, but they are "made pure" – they can be "friends of God."

This means that if we want to be like God, to be like the God who "attends to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die" (Ps 102.21), we are not to exclude anyone, but rather reach out to others. To be like the holy God is not to avoid contact with others, whoever they are, but to develop our capacity for love. This is exactly Jesus’ attitude towards the leper: “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him…  And Paul (in this Sunday’s second reading) simply invites us to imitate Christ: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11.1).

Nevertheless, Jesus had to violate the letter of the law in order to fully live the commandment of love ("Love your neighbor as yourself"); his initiative shows an extraordinary freedom; but not everyone is ready to understand, and so Jesus asks the cleansed leper to keep silent: "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." From the onset of his public life, the struggle that would lead Jesus to his death has begun.

We can already see the outline of the Passion and Resurrection: Jesus, more devalued and excluded than a leper, stained with blood and spit, executed outside the Holy City, this Jesus will be the beloved of the Father, the image of God, the "Pure" par excellence.
******
Jesus was a “practicing believer” as we would say in today’s terms: we saw how he spent the Sabbath in the Capernaum synagogue. This does not prevent him from breaking the law that forbade him to approach or touch the leper.

Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 15 février, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html