(Sunday VI, OT B) The Joy of Being Restored

Mark 1:40-45 continues from the image left us in 1:39 of Jesus’ growing popularity. A leper requests him for cleansing. Implied in the request is the desire of being restored to the life of society (cf. Leviticus 13:45-46). The leper is cut off from the worshipping community; he cannot participate in the blessings given to it. By touching the leper, Jesus takes upon himself the isolation and restores the man to his community. The joy of the leper is reflected in the responsorial psalm of the Mass.

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Restoring to Community
(6th Sunday OT B) Healing A Leper

Magaral Tayo:   Ang Pagpapagaling ng Ketongin

Guide for the Reading

Consider the image below of the NAB translation of Mark 1:40-45. Verse 40 continues the summary description of Jesus’ activities in verse 39. The reader should be able to see how the story begins with an implied contrast between Jesus and his growing popularity and the leper, alone and isolated. Click on the image for a bigger picture.

1. For a better appreciation of the condition of lepers in Israel, see Leviticus 13-14
2. Note how Jesus reacts to the lepers request: his compassion ends in a touch, something that no ordinary Jew would have done since touching a leper makes one ritually unclean.
3. Note too how the leprosy “reacts” upon the touch and words of Jesus. It leaves, like the demons Jesus has been exorcising. The phrase marked with an asterisk can be literally translated so as to look like an exorcism has been performed.
4. Jesus tells two things to the cleansed leper, but the leper, we are told, disobeys the first one. Can you guess why the man could not keep the story to himself?
5. At the end of the story, we find Jesus in isolated places. We are left to understand that the cleansed man is now able to go back home to family and friends. A reversal has taken place in Jesus and the man’s conditions. How did that reversal occur?

Comparing the Readings

The first reading from Lev. 13 sets the background for the cleansing story in the Gospel. The main text here is in vv. 45-46

“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!’46 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. (Leviticus (NAB) 13:45-46)

The verse underlines the isolation of the leper.

The choice of Psalm 32 for the responsory is actually motivated by the Gospel story, specifically the cleansed leper’s “proclaiming” the news. The theme of psalm 32 is about forgiveness received after the confession of one’s sins. Here too we find the condition of leprosy used as a metaphor for the alienation caused by sin.

Suggestions for the Lesson

One can use the gospel story and its connection with Psalm 32 as a launch pad for the following topics:

1. the work of the Total Christ in restoring people to communion
2. the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession)
3. the one restored to communion as an agent of evangelization
4. Jesus as the Servant of Yahweh who trades places with the leper (the story in Mark will have to be complemented by other texts especially from Paul about the role of Jesus in man’s salvation.)

A wrong approach to the liturgy of the 6th Sunday would be to treat the narrative in Mark 1:40-45 as simply a miracle and concentrate on the power that healed the leper.