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Reflections on Sunday Readings |
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Reflection:
Today’s Gospel reading really has three separate, though related ideas. Immediately after Jesus left the synagogue where he had commanded an unclean spirit to leave a man on the Sabbath, he went to the house of Simon Peter and cured Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. She was so completely healed that she immediately waited on them. After those two healings, Mark tells us that: “(t)he whole town was gathered at the door.” Jesus healed many and drove out many demons. In antiquity, what we call mental illness today was often thought to be possession by a demon. So Jesus was healing physical and mental and spiritual illnesses, all the while restoring people to their rightful status and place in the community, a very important factor in a culture of honor and shame. His fame was growing by leaps and bounds. Instead of letting it “go to his head” as we might do, he rose very early, and went out to a deserted place to pray, to be alone, to commune with his Abba/Father, to determine what he should do with such acclaim and talents. He realized that he was to move on, and minister to the whole of Galilee, the entire northern part of Israel. We are all in need of physical or mental or spiritual healing of some sort. Let us seek that from our loving Savior, then make sure that we share the good news of healing and comfort with all we meet.
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Scripture:
Lv 13:1-2, 44-46; Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45
The first reading for next Sunday is from the book of Leviticus. Leviticus and Numbers detailed the code of religious law for the Hebrew people, which consisted of some 613 rules and regulations. Today’s reading dealt with the procedures to be followed when one was deemed to have leprosy. But first a bit of background information. What the Bible calls “leprosy” is different than modern-day leprosy, which is also known as Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s disease wasn’t discovered or known until well after Leviticus was written. As today’s reading states: “a scab or pustule or blotch” on the skin was the issue at hand. Something like psoriasis, no doubt. In Leviticus 19:2 it says: “be holy as the Lord your God is holy.” One couldn’t be holy (like God) without bodily wholeness and integrity. So when the bodily boundary of wholeness and integrity was broken, as by an affliction of the skin, the afflicted one had to live outside the community, as anyone who came into contact with him or her then became unclean. To the ancients, whose whole lives were centered around the family, tribe and village such a punishment was literally life-threatening. As one lived on the outside, one had to announce by dress and word their uncleanness. The priest in the temple was the judge on whether a person was unclean or not, healed or not.
Such a condition afflicted the man who knelt down before Jesus and begged him to make him clean. Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. In light of the above, think about how radical that encounter was. Instead of crying out “unclean, unclean” and avoiding human contact, the man came right up to Jesus and asked to be healed. Even more remarkably, Jesus touched him! Jesus, according to the law, was now himself unclean. He commanded the man to go and show himself to the priest, as commanded by the law, which would allow him to return to his rightful place in the community. He then said: "See that you tell no one anything.” Why? Frequently in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus commanded silence from a cast-out unclean spirit, from a person healed. Scripture scholars call this Mark’s “messianic secret.” Probably the reason that Jesus commanded silence was that he wanted people to believe in him and his message because of its authenticity and genuineness, not because of the miraculous signs he worked. If faith is based on miracles, said faith often ends when the miracles end. Jesus wanted a permanent and forever faith based on his preaching of the Good News that God’s kingdom is at hand, salvation and eternal life and forgiveness of sins are indeed offered to all who believe and respond. Jesus obviously turned the conventional wisdom of his era upside down, by associating with lepers and sinners and tax collectors. He healed many of their infirmities, even touching them when it wasn’t “allowed.” And he wanted no credit for any of it, as long as the people came to believe. Are we willing to set aside societal and other’s expectations to approach the Lord, be healed, and then proclaim our wonderful good news of wholeness and salvation?
By: Mike Glotzbach, Director of Christian Formation, Mother Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church, Topeka, KS |
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Reflections