IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN CURE ME.

VI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 1:40-45

This Sunday’s gospel is about a leper who went out of his way to meet Jesus. Nothing is said about that leper. We don’t know the name, the sex or the age. The only information that sets him aside is that he is a leper. Being a leper, he was an outcast, who had to live alone, far from society. Without a family and a community, it is as if he is already dead. Still alive, but already in hell. In his body, he experiences decay and, in his heart, he has to deal with sorrow and loneliness. Everybody stays away from him and even God has abandoned him. The first reading, taken from the book of Leviticus, presents the harsh laws that dealt with leprosy. “A man infected with leprosy must wear his clothing torn and his hair disordered; he must shield his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” (Lev 13:44-46). 

To understand the harshness of those laws, we must remember that leprosy is a contagious and incurable disease. The community should be protected and, without a cure, the only protection was to exclude the leper from the community. The sickness of leprosy had a religious connotation of uncleanness. Thus the leper was punished by society and by God.

In the gospel, the leper stands for all those who are ignored, despised and excluded. They are rejected and considered as garbage. They have no place in society or even in the Church. Certainly, there are many situations of exclusion. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we went through a similar experience. Everybody lived in fear and tried to keep away from others who were seen as dangerous. We were not even allowed in churches.

The leper of the Gospel tried to break free of the constraints imposed by tradition and law. Out of despair, he approached Jesus and cried out: “If you want to, you can cure me.” It all depended on Jesus. And he entrusted his fate to Jesus. Then, going against law and tradition, “Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” By doing that, Jesus became unclean and should keep away from other people until he performed a rite of purification. However, he did not bother about that. At the leper’s request, Jesus answered: “Of course I want to! Be cured!” Then, he ordered the leper to present himself to the priest, for his healing to be recognised and to become again an active member of the community.

Jesus was well aware that his action would have repercussions. That’s why the leper was told to keep quiet and “say nothing to anyone”. However, his joy was so great that he could not keep it a secret. He had to announce what Jesus had done for him. As a consequence of this announcement, “Jesus could no longer go openly into any town but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived.” It is as if Jesus himself had become an outcast. Despite that, many people looked for Jesus: “… people from all around would come to him.”

Let us proclaim with thanks what Jesus has done for us and let us learn with his mercy and compassion.