First reading: Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46
Psalm: Ps 32:1-2,5,11
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
“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!’—
Definition of uncleanliness
A quick perusal of Wikipedia tells us that unclean can mean: something which is not clean or which lacks purity. It is a term that is found in the Old Testament. The Hebrew term tamei refers to a state of ritual impurity, things which require purification. The term is also used for types of animals which are always tamei. The terms carries through to Islam meaning a state which may require ablutions, or referring to ritually impure food.
When we think of Jewish references to things that are unclean we immediately think of pork, other non-kosher foods like shell fish, and the improper mixing of meat and dairy. It is very complex, but you get the picture.
According to the book of Leviticus, the purpose of Jewish kashrut, or dietary laws, is to instill a sense of ritual purity and holiness among the Jewish people. Scholars point out that the Hebrew word for “holiness” is etymologically related to the Hebrew word for “distinction” or “separation.” The most widely accepted theory is that those laws serve to distinguish between the Israelites and the non-Israelite nations of the world. Gordon Wenham writes: “The laws reminded Israel what sort of behavior was expected of her, that she had been chosen to be holy in an unclean world.”
We can say that holding a person to be unclean causes that person to be apart from the community. If you are apart from the community you are apart from God, because God chooses to live amongst us in community.
Obviously, our reading from Leviticus declares lepers as separate from the community, separate to the point where they are marked as apart, by their appearance and by their proclamation: —unclean, unclean.—
Who is unclean
We continue to recognize ‘uncleanliness.’ Every people and every culture marks the unclean as being apart. Christianity has not been immune to this trend. In fact, Christianity may be one of the worst offenders. We’ve created whole new classes of uncleanliness. We’ve set ourselves against each other. In many instances the people who bear Christ’s name are the first to point out distinction, disagreement, and uncleanliness amongst His people.
Christians have taken each and every sin, and have turned those sins into more than the failure they should represent. Rather, we have taken sin and turned it into a marker of pervasive, deep-seated uncleanliness. A man with sin is no longer a man in need of repentance, a man to whom the door of forgiveness is open, rather he is an outcast, a part of a race that is apart. He is a leper.
Where Christianity has failed modern secular society has taken up the torch. We could each produce a list of egregiously unclean politicians, actors, and sports figures. We could even throw in a few relatives, those unclean black sheep we’re embarrassed over.
Our definitions are not God’s definitions
In defining uncleanliness Jesus says (Matthew 23:25-28):
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.
You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, because as St. Luke conveys, Jesus had gone to dine in the house of a Pharisee, but did not wash before He ate. The Pharisee was astonished: Jesus was eating while ritually impure. What the Pharisee didn’t know was that Jesus was the purity of God, and that He saw into the Pharisee’s heart, which was unclean.
Jesus uses his encounters with lepers, with the dead, and with the Pharisees to illustrate God’s understanding of uncleanliness. The things that God is concerned about are the unclean things that are inside of us, well hidden from the world. These are the things that are destroying our souls. Factors of ritual impurity mean nothing if they are no more than an excuse for ignoring our sins.
From this we get a true picture of God’s concern. God’s concern is for us and for our hearts. God instructs: look after your faults, repent of them, and seek forgiveness. In example after example Jesus reaches out for the sinful, not to deny or whitewash their sins, but to call them out of their sins, to perfect them. In doing this God shows us that He is the one who perfects.
In encounter after encounter Jesus points to the fact that the Pharisees, His apostles, the bystanders, and stone throwers did not know what they were talking about. When they pointed to the sins of others Jesus asked them to consider their sins. In doing this God shows us that He is the one who knows and judges.
We learn that the context for God’s relationship with us is love and mercy.
Jesus wants to heal us
The Leper asks Jesus: “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
In reply we hear that Jesus was moved with pity.
he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”—¨
During the Penitential Rite, which is part of every Holy Mass, we fall to our knees and examine our consciences. We enumerate our sins and seek God’s forgiveness. In asking for forgiveness we pledge to amend our lives, to change through repentance, and to reform ourselves with the help of God’s grace. Through the hands of the priest God reaches out, He palaces His hand on our shoulder, and He heals us.
Jesus wants to heal us. He wants to have us in His community, in this community, a community that lives in His presence. He does not ask that we exclude anyone by calling them unclean, but that we include ourselves through a recognition of our uncleanliness, an uncleanliness that will be washed away. Jesus stands ready to say to us: “I do will it. Be made clean.“—¨
Jesus’ healing has a precondition
Jesus heals us, and His gift of healing is free. Because this healing is God’s gift He sets a condition. The condition is our repentance and sorrow. It is interesting to note that the leper had to ask for Jesus’ healing. Like the leper we must ask. As we enter this pre-Lenten season we must reconnect with this responsibility, first and foremost for ourselves. We must come to Jesus and ask. That humility, the recognition of our personal state of uncleanliness, and true sorrow for that state, is required so that, with God’s help, we might change. If we are ready to change, if we have a notion that change is necessary, then Jesus stands ready. In healing the leper Jesus shows that His healing reconnects us. We, who were unclean in our sin, who were outsiders, will be made whole and clean, part of the community of believers, the community of God’s sons and daughters.
Jesus’ healing is complete
The most remarkable thing is this: Jesus’ healing is complete and total. Jesus’ blood washes our robes and makes them white. Think about that. Jesus turns our soiled, unclean robes to robes of dazzling white. That is the power and magnificence of God’s healing. Whenever we face doubt, whenever we find our faith faltering, recall those robes. See them for what they are, and know that Jesus makes them pure and clean. There’s no ring-around-the-collar, there’s no grey tinge. Our robes aren’t left off-white. As we ascend the mountain of Calvary with our Lord and Savior, as we climb behind Him, remember that the blood that flows back down upon us, bought at the cost of His sacrificial death, is the surest sign of His desire that we be made whole in Him, that we be made clean.
Jesus’ blood washes the world. Whenever we face the temptation to call others unclean, we must see their robes washed white in the very same blood. Whenever we have cause to criticize the uncleanliness of others let us think upon our sinfulness.
Jesus is in the healing business
My friends,
All of this, this parish, our Holy Church, the teachings of the Fathers and the Apostles, the great sacraments the Lord has given us, are all for this. They are given that we may be made whole, that we may be healed, that we might recognize the fact the Jesus washes us clean so that we might live with Him forever.
We can define uncleanliness, we can seek it out in others, we can set ourselves apart and declare ourselves separate from our brothers and sisters. If we do, we passed right by Jesus. Somehow, we missed Him. Look deep, look inside, fall at His feet, may we ever fall on our knees, knowing that in a moment we can stand, assured of healing, with robes white as snow.
Let these words, from the Fifty-first Psalm instruct us, recalling that God comes to heal, to remove the uncleanliness that matters, and to remove it with His blood:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Fill me with joy and gladness;
let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
O Lord, open thou my lips,
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
Amen.
