THE WORD
1Sm 4,1-11 / Mk 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 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.
IN OTHER WORDS
I’ve tried imagining myself as a leper, suffering from disfigurement, being shunned, and living in the margins. How might I look if I had sores all over my body and smelt foul? It is honestly very hard to imagine myself this way, being currently blest with amazing health and good complexion. But I can imagine the desire to be made clean.
In Jesus’ time, a suspected leper had to go to a priest for examination. If found to be infected, the person should wear torn clothes, let his/her hair hang loose, cover his upper lip, and cry out “unclean, unclean!” He should also live alone. An outcast, he was considered utterly unclean – physically and spiritually.
In today’s reading, the “quarantined” leper, did not mind being sanctioned because he saw in Jesus the hope for his healing. His faith healed him. The key lesson to be learned from this incident is that sin may deflect us in the sight of God, but through Christ, we can be healed of the plague that separates us from Him. This powerful story can encourage us to present ourselves to the Lord for whatever restoration we need. Like the leper, there is a need for us to surrender ourselves to Christ: our hope, our redeemer. We might as well borrow the dialogue of the leper: “If you wish, you can make me clean.
- Fr. Felmar Castrodes Fiel, SVD | DYRF, Cebu
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
