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“The Leper”
by Alexandre Bida, 1850s |
Readings for Thursday of the
First Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem
Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading I: 1 Samuel 4:1-11
The Philistines gathered for
an attack on Israel.
Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at
Ebenezer,
while the Philistines camped
at Aphek.
The Philistines then drew up
in battle formation against Israel.
After a fierce struggle Israel was
defeated by the Philistines,
who slew about four thousand
men on the battlefield.
When the troops retired to
the camp, the elders of Israel
said,
“Why has the LORD permitted
us to be defeated today
by the Philistines?
Let us fetch the ark of the
Lord from Shiloh
that it may go into battle
among us
and save us from the grasp of
our enemies.”
So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there
the ark of the LORD of hosts,
who is enthroned upon the cherubim.
The two sons of Eli, Hophni
and Phinehas, were with the ark of God.
When the ark of the LORD
arrived in the camp,
all Israel shouted so loudly that the
earth resounded.
The Philistines, hearing the
noise of shouting, asked,
“What can this loud shouting
in the camp of the Hebrews mean?”
On learning that the ark of
the LORD had come into the camp,
the Philistines were
frightened.
They said, “Gods have come to
their camp.”
They said also, “Woe to us!
This has never happened before. Woe to us!
Who can deliver us from the power
of these mighty gods?
These are the gods that
struck the Egyptians
with various plagues and with
pestilence.
Take courage and be manly,
Philistines;
otherwise you will become
slaves to the Hebrews,
as they were your slaves.
So fight manfully!”
The Philistines fought and Israel was
defeated;
every man fled to his own
tent.
It was a disastrous defeat,
in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot
soldiers.
The ark of God was captured,
and Eli’s two sons, Hophni
and Phinehas, were among the dead.
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Commentary on 1 Sm 4:1-11
The chronicle of
Samuel continues with the story of the defeat of the Hebrews by the
Philistines. The story, in addition to providing a historical reference, also
fulfills the first prophecy of Samuel, that God would punish the blasphemy of
the sons of Eli (see 1 Samuel 2:12ff and 1 Samuel 3:11-14). Their death in the battle in which the ark of the covenant
was captured is the underlying lesson of this historical text and may have been
interpreted as the reason for the defeat of the army of Israel. We note the Philistines,
when speaking of the arrival of the ark in the camp of the army of Israel,
refer to the arrival of “gods.” This plural address reflects the polytheistic
views of the Philistines who assumed Israel also worshiped many gods.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25
R. (27b) Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy.
Yet now you have cast us off
and put us in disgrace,
and you go not forth with our
armies.
You have let us be driven
back by our foes;
those who hated us plundered
us at will.
R. Redeem us, Lord,
because of your mercy.
You made us the reproach of
our neighbors,
the mockery and the scorn of
those around us.
You made us a byword among
the nations,
a laughingstock among the
peoples.
R. Redeem us, Lord,
because of your mercy.
Why do you hide your face,
forgetting our woe and our
oppression?
For our souls are bowed down
to the dust,
our bodies are pressed to the
earth.
R. Redeem us, Lord,
because of your mercy.
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Commentary on Ps 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25
Psalm 44 is a
lament. The song calls to the Lord for help, asking God why he has allowed his
faithful to be defeated. The singer pleads with God to come to the aid of his
people for they are in great need.
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Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
A leper came to him and
kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me
clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched
out his hand,
touched the leper, and said
to him,
“I do will it. Be made
clean.”
The leprosy left him
immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he
dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See
that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the
priest
and offer for your cleansing
what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began
to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for
Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in
deserted places,
and people kept coming to him
from everywhere.
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Commentary on Mk 1:40-45
St. Mark’s account of this incident is almost
identical to that of St. Luke (see Luke
5:12-16). This healing occurs after the leper
demonstrates faith that Jesus can accomplish this feat, even though there are
only two times in Old Testament Scripture when this was done (Numbers
12:10-15; 2
Kings 5:1-14). In this account of Jesus curing the leper,
we see two remarkable details. First, it was Hebrew law that those designated
as “unclean” could not approach anyone closer than about ten feet. This leper
was clearly much closer. He was close enough to Jesus that he “stretched out
his hand and touched him.” Not just with a word was this leper made clean.
The Lord touched him, which by Hebrew law was taboo. In one action the Lord
demonstrates his power over the disease and his authority over the law.
Jesus asks the leper not to tell anyone how
this was accomplished, but to show the Hebrew priest he was clean and be allowed
to rejoin the community. The leper did not remain silent about what had
happened, so the Lord is mobbed by those seeking God’s favor. Unlike the
account in St. Luke, Jesus does not embrace the notoriety but withdraws to
deserted places. Nonetheless, people seek him out, "coming to him
from everywhere.”
CCC: Mk 1:40-41 2616; Mk
1:41 1504
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Reflection:
Oh, the happy leper touched
by Christ. The one completely without
sin takes away the sin of one punished and outcast. A person untouchable by
ordinary people was made clean. This
gesture by Jesus toward the leper sums up the Lord’s mission to us. Though we did not know it we were unclean,
like the leper. Our lesions did not
show. They were, for the most, part on
the inside. We were dying of a disease
that had afflicted us since Adam and Eve first allowed sin and death to come
into the world. And then God’s Son
stretched out his hand and touched us.
If our sins were manifested
like the sores of leprosy, the lines to get into the confessional would be
endless. A vain people would flock to
the one who could heal them on a daily basis. For in the confessional he
stretches out his hand and touches us.
But it does not work that way.
Sin hides in the flesh and is not exposed for all to see.
When Jesus touched the leper
and healed him, that happy soul was reconciled to Jesus, to God, and to his
community. If our sins were manifested
like the sores of leprosy, those who are relatively clean would avoid them,
would see them as outcast. And there
would be one more motivating factor, beyond simple vanity: to be reconciled
with God and allowed to come to his table, so he could stretch out his hand in
the Eucharist.
We who seek God know that
while our sins do not show, the one who sees in secret knows what we have done. The one who knows each hair on our heads
knows our hearts as well. We rejoice in
this knowledge because we are aware that like the leper of the Gospel, Jesus,
even now, stretches out his hand to us and makes us clean. He invites us to his heavenly banquet
foreshadowed on earth in the sacrifice of the Mass.
He blesses us with his touch and makes us holy.
Pax
[1]
The picture is “The Leper” by Alexandre Bida, 1850s.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the
psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
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