6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Healing the Leper... and US

 Commentary on the Mass Readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

- The First Reading is taken from the Book of Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 and concerns the regulations enforced by the priests regarding certain bodily diseases which made a person unclean and a menace to the health of his neighbors.

- The Second Reading is from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 10:31, 11:1 and speaks of our imitation of Paul as he imitates Christ for the sake of the Gospel, as well as of the unity of the Church of God.

- The Gospel is from St. Mark 1:40-45. We see both the divine power and the divine compassion of Jesus in this act of healing.

This Gospel account is part of a single day’s ministry of Jesus on a sabbath in and outside the synagogue of Capernaum (Mk 1:21–31), where He combines teaching and miracles of exorcism and healing.
Mention is not made of the content of the teachings, but of the effects of astonishment and alarm on the people is clearly noted. Jesus’ teaching with authority, making an absolute claim on the hearer, was in the best tradition of the ancient prophets, not of the scribes. The narrative continues with events that evening (Mk 1:32–34; see notes on Mt 8:14–17) and the next day (Mk 1:35–39).
The cleansing described here in Mk 1:40–45 stands as an isolated story.

A leper... for the various forms of skin disease, see Lv 13:1–50 and the note on Lv 13:2–4. There are only two instances in the Old Testament in which God is shown to have cured a leper (Nm 12:10–15; 2 Kgs 5:1–14).
The law of Moses provided for the ritual purification of a leper. In curing the leper, Jesus assumes that the priests will reinstate the cured man into the religious community. See also note on Lk 5:14.
But he takes it upon himself to do other than what Jesus commanded,

The Lepers Cure
Christs divine power was obviously needed in all instantaneous cures - and curing the leper in Capernaum was no different. Even if the diseases were curable, the ordinary process of nature took time to fight off the causes and to return to normal. Therefore, where there was an instantaneous recovery, some power above nature, some "supernatural cause" brought it about.
    But where the disease was incurable, as leprosy was in the time, to remove it by a simple word of command was more emphatically still the result of divine power. This divine power Jesus had, for he was himself divine, the Son of God.

The Compassion of Christ
His divine compassion for suffering humanity was, however, co-terminus with his divine power.

    It was out of compassion for the sad lot of the human race on earth that he descended to man's level, became a man equal to us in all things except sin, in order to suffer with us - and for us.
    By his human sufferings he made an atonement, a satisfaction for all the sins of the world — a satisfaction which all mankind could never make — to his heavenly Father. He was the literal ransom for that sin, and so obtained for us God's pardon.
    At the same time, 'by joining our human nature to his divine nature,' he brought us into the divine orbit and made us adopted sons of God and heirs of the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity.
    Because this seems almost too good to be true, many is the man who, to this very day, denies it or refuses to accept it. Such men make the mistake of measuring the infinite compassion of God with the limited yardstick of their own finite and puny compassion.

However, what we the Faithful say is:

"Thanks be to God, for his infinite compassion!"
Thanks be to God, for Christ his Son, who came and dwelt amongst us!"

To use the popular vernacular of the day - "We aint scared to say it!"

    He put heaven and a share in the life of God within our reach; he has shown us how to attain them, giving in his Church and the sacraments all the necessary aids.
    But we still need all of Christ's compassion if we are to get there. Because of our inclination to sin and because of the many times we unfortunately give in to that inclination, nothing but the mercy of God can save us from our own folly.
    However, that mercy is available, if only we ask for it. What we sinners need is the faith and confidence of the leper in today's gospel reading. He believed firmly in the power and the mercy of Jesus. "If you will, you can make me clean," was his approach to Jesus.
The will, the powerful will, that is the key.

    This should be our approach too, if we have the misfortune to fall into serious sin.
Jesus does will, and does want our salvation. His incarnation, and death on the cross, proves that. The fact that he left the power to forgive sins to his Church is another proof of both his will and desire to help us.
"All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth," he stated, "And to thee I pass this power" was his commission to the Apostles.

    Part of that power which he left to his Church is in the sacrament of penance - commonly called "confession" by those who don't yet fully understand its cleansing and salving nature.
In this Gospel, we see the leprosy of sin, like the leprosy of the body, can be washed away and the sinner restored to new and perfect spiritual health. 

    What folly for any non-Catholic Christian, then, to commit sin and isolate himself, like the unclean leper, from God. But it is greater folly still, to remain in this unclean state, thinking that he, the sinner himself, is the instrument of his own reconciliation. "I'll just tell God directly that I'm sorry," he says. "No one has to know, and he'll take care of it," they tell themselves.
What a dangerous and self-centered notion to fall into!   

    Especially when the cure for his disease is so easily available to any sincere penitent who bends the knee and confesses his disease of sin before Christs' own representative on earth - the Priest.
    "Whose sins you bind, will be bound in heaven; whos sins you release shall be released,"...with these words, Jesus gave His divine healing power to His Apostles and all those who succeeded them. Sure, you can try to talk yourself into a self-directed forgiveness, but that pretty much says it all.
You wanna take the chance with anything else? 

—Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.