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Gospel: Mark 1: 40-45
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, 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.
Then 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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Throughout history, perhaps the most brutal medical diagnosis was leprosy. It could last up to thirty years as a person’s skin slowly rotted away and their limbs fell off from their body. Eventually, lepers died after slipping into a coma, totally alone.
In the middle ages, priests would even process with a stole and a crucifix into church, leading a crew of lepers. Once inside, he would offer a funeral service for them even though they were still alive.
After the service, lepers were required to dress in black. They were both dead and alive.
If they ever wanted to see a church service again, lepers would have to peer through a crack in the wall from the outside.
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This is the context behind today’s Gospel passage, revealing the heart of Christ.
A leper breaks the Law by running up to Jesus. Instead of scolding him, or scurrying away in fear, the Lord engages him.
Then he does the unfathomable: Jesus touches him. “I do will it,” Jesus says to this leper, “be made clean.”
Although the leper is cured, technically the Lord is now the one who’s ritually impure because of the contact. He cannot even enter his own Father’s house.
But to prove this man is no longer impure, Jesus orders him to go back to the Temple, showing himself to the priests.
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In this remarkable scene, we discover several things about the heart of Jesus: First, his compassion is boundless. There’s nothing he will not do to save a soul, even if that means breaking the Law.
However, in sending the cleansed man back to the Temple, the Lord also demonstrates his respect for Old Testament rituals.
There’s a balance here between divine power, compassion, and tradition.
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So, what does this mean for us?
While it’s important to follow the laws inherent in religion (and the Church has many), in the end, compassion reigns supreme.
There’s nothing we should not do to save a soul, even if it means breaking the Law.
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Image credits: (1) Christianity.com (2) Gloryinthemorning.com (3) The Central Minnesota Catholic