Outcasts no longer are now included - Sunday's gospel
Posted by Br Kieran Fenn on 10 February 2012 | 0 Comments6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 1:40-45: Again we see Jesus confronting the ‘uncleanness’ associated with demonic control of human life.
This ‘leprosy’ (any skin infection rather than our understanding of Hansen’s disease) was the one illness regarded as punishment from God with extreme social and religious exclusion as prescribed. Yet this leper approaches Jesus in defiance of all the barriers placed against his action. The power to heal leprosy belongs to God alone, and the only issue is whether Jesus ‘wants to’. Again we see the flow of healing is from Jesus to the unfortunate leper, and not infection flowing in the opposite direction.
Jesus ‘becomes angry’ (the literal translation) rather than ‘moved with pity’. Mark gives us the human emotions of Jesus more than any other gospel. With good reason he feels anger at the demonic hold on humanity that he sees in the man before him. We too are called to look on our own world and while celebrating its beauty, also to see its ugly side. Jesus, wonder worker and healer, a messiah in power, this is a path Mark will not allow us to follow beyond his first eight chapters. The real Jesus is the suffering Christ finally acknowledged by the centurion at the foot of the cross as truly the Son of God.
The former leper begins to tell his tale to everyone. ‘To proclaim’ the ‘news’ is the responsibility of every Christian ‘cleansed’ by Christ in baptism. As a result of this healing and the spreading of the news about it, Jesus is forced to escape by withdrawing to a deserted place. The exiled leper is now back in society. The one who healed him has to live as an outcast. Mission does cost the one who takes on the burden of others.
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