Mark 1:40-45

Hebrews 3:7-14

Psalm 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

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.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I kneel down before you in prayer and ask that you cleanse me from my sin and any attachments to sin. Help me break the sinful bonds of slavery and experience the fullness of true freedom.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Healing the Leper: In Mark’s Gospel, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry was one success after another. Jesus didn’t meet any opposition from the religious authorities or any lack of faith. He was teaching in a new way and the people he encountered marveled at his awesome teaching authority. Jesus cast out demons and commanded them to be silent. He healed everyone who came to him. In today’s Gospel, when Jesus touched the leper, the action did not render Jesus unclean. The exact opposite happened. Jesus touched the leper and rendered the leper clean. The reason why Jesus told him to go to the priests and make an offering for his cleansing was so that the leper could be reintroduced into the community (see Leviticus 14). For years, the leper in today’s Gospel was a social outcast, unable to go into the synagogue, unable to go on pilgrimage with the people of God, and unable to worship at the Temple. By showing himself to the priest and the priest declaring that the leper was now clean, the cleansed leper could rejoin the community and worship the Lord God with his brothers and sisters. 

2. New Covenant Healing: While Jesus’ cleansing action is simple and direct, the ritual prescribed for readmitting a cleansed leper into the community in Leviticus 14 was very involved. It consisted in the offering of birds, lambs, and grain, and anointing with oil. The cleansed leper would have oil placed on their ear, thumb, toe, and head. The complicated rites and burdensome laws of the old covenant are being brought to fulfillment by Jesus in the simplicity and freedom of the New Covenant! When we are healed from our spiritual leprosy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we do not need to offer animal sacrifices in gratitude, but we are given a penance. In the Sacrament, we are not anointed with oil, but we are strengthened by the anointing Spirit for the battle against sin. And in the Sacrament, we are reunited with our brothers and sisters in the Church.

3. Harden Not Your Hearts: The Letter to the Hebrews has proclaimed that as God’s definitive Word, Jesus is superior to all the prophets and that as God’s Son, he is superior to all the angels. In chapter three, the letter recalls the Exodus journey of God’s people and hints at Jesus as being superior to Moses. The letter quotes Psalm 95 which invites the people of Israel to not harden their hearts as the people did in the wilderness. Again and again, the people of the Exodus generation rebelled against God and they were punished with not entering into the Promised Land. The letter warns us that we should not imitate the Exodus generation so that we may enter into the eternal rest of the heavenly Promised Land. We are not led by Moses but by Jesus. As we journey through life, we need to recognize that we have become partners of Christ and need to hold firm until the end, preserving in faith and not succumbing to the deceit of sin.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are my true leader. I will follow in your footsteps and walk with you on the way that leads to eternal life. Cleanse my heart and soul as I walk beside you. Sustain me when I am weak and weary. Pick me up when I falter. Carry me, like a Good Shepherd, when I need it most.

Living the Word of God: Is there a family member who has been estranged from God or the Church that I can reach out to this week? What can I do to help this person? Prayers for them? A meal together? A text message? Can I be a prophet of God’s word to them?