1 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:14,500 Hi everyone and welcome back to our podcast. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,500 As always, we're going to take a look at the Gospel reading from 3 00:00:17,500 --> 00:00:21,200 today's mass and we're going to look at some key features of the 4 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:22,900 text. What's going on on the literal 5 00:00:22,900 --> 00:00:25,000 level? How would the original readers 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 of understood this? What kind of things would they 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,900 have thought about. So let's start with the passage 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,900 Which is Mark chapter 1 picking up where we left off yesterday. 9 00:00:34,900 --> 00:00:41,700 So we're now at verses 40 to 45. A leper came to Jesus and 10 00:00:41,700 --> 00:00:44,700 pleaded on his knees if you want to. 11 00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:48,600 He said, you can cure me. Feeling sorry for him. 12 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,500 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. 13 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:57,300 Of course, I want to he said be cured and the leprosy left him 14 00:00:57,300 --> 00:01:01,800 at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away 15 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:07,000 and sternly ordered him mind, you say nothing to anyone but go 16 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,300 and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your 17 00:01:10,300 --> 00:01:14,000 healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery. 18 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,500 The man went away, but then started talking about it freely 19 00:01:19,700 --> 00:01:22,600 and telling this story everywhere so that Jesus could 20 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,900 no longer openly go into any town, but had to stay outside in 21 00:01:26,900 --> 00:01:31,600 places when nobody lived even so people from all around would 22 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:39,700 come to him. So In this passage Jesus heals a 23 00:01:39,700 --> 00:01:43,000 leper and this story is reasonably familiar to most of 24 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,900 us. It's our short healing story. 25 00:01:45,300 --> 00:01:48,100 So first, let's start with a bit of a discussion about leprosy. 26 00:01:48,100 --> 00:01:51,700 So, in that culture leprosy, didn't just refer to one 27 00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:53,900 particular disease, it actually referred to a group of 28 00:01:53,900 --> 00:01:59,000 conditions skin conditions that were all caused by bacteria. 29 00:02:00,900 --> 00:02:04,100 What they had in common was that these group of diseases, cause 30 00:02:04,100 --> 00:02:08,400 skin disfigurement loss of Limbs in serious cases and maybe even 31 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,600 blindness. So it was not pretty. 32 00:02:12,100 --> 00:02:15,600 In that Society to have leprosy was basically a death sentence 33 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:18,900 because there was no cure. So people with Leprosy were 34 00:02:18,900 --> 00:02:22,200 outcasts, they were putting compounds away from the general 35 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:24,500 population so that they didn't infect anyone else. 36 00:02:24,500 --> 00:02:27,800 And that's actually they're following their the Jewish law 37 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:32,200 in Leviticus 13 which tells the Jews, how to deal with lepers. 38 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:37,300 So leprosy was a serious issue and that was the way they dealt 39 00:02:37,300 --> 00:02:40,700 with it in that Society is they put the lepers on the outskirts 40 00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:43,600 of society in groups. I couldn't affect anyone else. 41 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,100 So the lepers were considered to be unclean physically but also 42 00:02:48,100 --> 00:02:50,900 ritually, which meant that they couldn't participate in worship 43 00:02:50,900 --> 00:02:53,900 or public life though. We're not consider to be clean. 44 00:02:54,700 --> 00:02:59,300 So this leper comes to Jesus. Presumably, this is still 45 00:02:59,300 --> 00:03:02,600 happening in Capernaum, maybe or a certainly in the Galilee area 46 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:05,500 pleaded on his knees. So he's desperate. 47 00:03:05,500 --> 00:03:07,900 He's coming to Jesus with a petition. 48 00:03:07,900 --> 00:03:10,600 He's on his knees. So the murders man is probably 49 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,700 heard a lot about Jesus already. D and knows that Jesus can heal 50 00:03:13,700 --> 00:03:18,400 him and he says to Jesus, if you want to you can cure me. 51 00:03:19,100 --> 00:03:22,000 So, that's an interesting thing to say, the man believes that 52 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,200 Jesus can heal him but he's not demanding at his saying if you 53 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,700 want to, you can heal me. Now when he says you can cure me 54 00:03:29,700 --> 00:03:32,600 the actual original translation, there is just you can make me 55 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:35,500 clean. So probably the man's main 56 00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:38,300 concern. Here is not physical curing 57 00:03:38,500 --> 00:03:41,200 more. So he wants to be made clean 58 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:42,900 again. From a community perspective, 59 00:03:42,900 --> 00:03:45,600 your wants to be able to participate in ritual worship 60 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,100 again. He's been particularly bold 61 00:03:49,100 --> 00:03:52,500 because normally lepers are not supposed to approach people from 62 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:56,400 the general population. He's desperate though and he 63 00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:00,800 also has great faith, that Jesus can heal him verse 41. 64 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:04,000 Jesus. It says he felt sorry for him. 65 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,500 Or another translation says, he's moved with pity for the 66 00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:09,600 man. So Jesus has compassion on the 67 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,500 man he stretched out his hand and touched him. 68 00:04:13,500 --> 00:04:16,000 Now, think about this, for most people, that will be a massive 69 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,300 risk to touch a leper, is a good chance that you're going to be 70 00:04:19,300 --> 00:04:22,100 infected as well. But in fact, the opposite 71 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:25,900 happens here Jesus power goes into The man into the leper. 72 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,300 And Jesus says, I of course, I want to heal you be cured. 73 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:36,600 So I think we can say here that Jesus never refuses healing for 74 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,300 anyone who sincerely asks in faith. 75 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,400 So he says, of course, I want to hear you. 76 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,900 So that verse 42, the leprosy leaves the man at once, and 77 00:04:45,900 --> 00:04:47,800 probably the crowds would have seen it as well. 78 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,000 They would have seen a visible change in the man. 79 00:04:51,500 --> 00:04:55,700 And Mark, here wants his readers to understand as the original 80 00:04:55,700 --> 00:04:58,600 readers would have read this. They probably realizing that 81 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,200 Jesus can remove defilement from anyone who approaches him in 82 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:04,900 faith. That's the overall lesson we 83 00:05:04,900 --> 00:05:10,600 learn about the Messiah here, is that he will make anyone clean, 84 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:13,200 who approaches him in faith. I think that's a legitimate 85 00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:15,900 thing we can take away from the text and what the original 86 00:05:15,900 --> 00:05:17,300 readers would have taken away too. 87 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:20,400 Because remember the gospel ride is one of the things I want to 88 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,900 do is they want to invite people who haven't yet, made a decision 89 00:05:23,900 --> 00:05:27,000 to follow Jesus, to choose to follow Jesus. 90 00:05:28,900 --> 00:05:33,000 Verse 43, Jesus immediately, sent him away and sternly 91 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,000 ordered him. Say nothing to anyone. 92 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:37,900 And we've seen this over the last couple of days when Jesus 93 00:05:37,900 --> 00:05:41,200 performs a healing at this early stage in his ministry. 94 00:05:41,500 --> 00:05:45,100 He tells the people he heals. Please don't tell anyone about 95 00:05:45,100 --> 00:05:47,900 this. He wants to be careful that were 96 00:05:47,900 --> 00:05:52,400 doesn't spread too quickly. He's got a timeline of when he 97 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,500 needs to do things and when he needs to die and he doesn't want 98 00:05:55,500 --> 00:05:58,900 the timeline to be jeopardized. He knows that if People. 99 00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:01,900 Here he is the Messiah to early, they'll probably have false 100 00:06:01,900 --> 00:06:04,100 ideas of the Messiah. They want to make him a 101 00:06:04,100 --> 00:06:06,200 political leader, and things will get out of hand too 102 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,900 quickly, so Jesus wants the message to spread not too 103 00:06:10,900 --> 00:06:14,100 quickly. And so and this is sometimes 104 00:06:14,100 --> 00:06:16,300 called by Scholars, the Messianic secret. 105 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:19,600 Jesus wants to keep his identity secret, particularly in the 106 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:23,400 gospel of Mark, that's highlighted verse 44. 107 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,200 The next thing is as the leopard is Go and show yourself to the 108 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,800 priest and this is following the Old Testament law here. 109 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:32,700 So the Old Testament required that a leper who claimed to be 110 00:06:32,700 --> 00:06:36,100 healed of leprosy, couldn't just come back into the society. 111 00:06:36,100 --> 00:06:39,500 They actually had to go and be inspected by the priest. 112 00:06:40,500 --> 00:06:43,900 And the priest would have to look over them and we admit them 113 00:06:43,900 --> 00:06:47,600 into public Society. If the if the priests agreed 114 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:49,300 that the man had in fact been healed. 115 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,600 Second thing Jesus says, here is make the offering for your 116 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,900 healing prescribed by Moses is evidence of your recovery. 117 00:06:57,100 --> 00:07:00,500 So according to the law of Moses, if the priest, check them 118 00:07:00,500 --> 00:07:04,300 out and declares and the leper, cured the leper or the X slipper 119 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:09,100 then has to take to clean. Birds one is sacrificed and the 120 00:07:09,100 --> 00:07:11,800 other bird is dipped in the blood of the first, which seems 121 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,500 a bit strange to us. But that's how they did those 122 00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:18,700 ritual laws as evidence of their healing and that's spelled out 123 00:07:18,700 --> 00:07:21,700 in Leviticus, 14 verses. Has 327. 124 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,500 So, the Old Testament background for leprosy is Leviticus 13 and 125 00:07:26,500 --> 00:07:30,800 Leviticus 14. And Jesus in the leper are just 126 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:32,400 following the law that's laid out there. 127 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,600 So that's what Jesus says and the leper needs to go and do But 128 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:41,300 verse 45, the man started talking about it freely and 129 00:07:41,300 --> 00:07:44,500 telling the story everywhere. So, he goes against Jesus wishes 130 00:07:44,500 --> 00:07:47,700 here, but understandable, because he would be so joyful 131 00:07:47,700 --> 00:07:50,600 that he's been healed from this leprosy that he's had his entire 132 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:56,000 life, but the result is, Jesus can no longer go openly into any 133 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,000 town. Now, everyone, because the leper 134 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,100 is telling everyone everyone knows about Jesus and his power 135 00:08:02,100 --> 00:08:04,800 to heal. So now when people hear his 136 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:07,800 coming though, crowd around wherever, You staying. 137 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:10,400 So it was becoming really hard for Jesus to go into Villages 138 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:12,600 because immediately people would crowd around him. 139 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:18,100 So the result is he has to stay outside in places where nobody 140 00:08:18,100 --> 00:08:22,400 lived or another translation says he was forced out into the 141 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:26,000 country so it was apparently getting to the point where Jesus 142 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,000 couldn't actually stay within the village. 143 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:32,299 So he has to go and into broad open areas of the countryside, 144 00:08:32,299 --> 00:08:35,299 such as the hills around the Sea of Galilee. 145 00:08:35,700 --> 00:08:39,100 And so there's a transition here in Mark's gospel from Jesus 146 00:08:39,100 --> 00:08:42,500 doing Ministry within the Galilean villages, to now, sort 147 00:08:42,500 --> 00:08:45,800 of going to the Galilean. Entry side where he can better 148 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,800 deal with the larger crowds. It's ironic though, isn't it? 149 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,500 That Jesus is now taken on the lepers condition in society. 150 00:08:53,900 --> 00:08:57,400 Previously the leper couldn't go into villages in public and they 151 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,200 are Jesus can't go into villages in public either. 152 00:09:02,100 --> 00:09:05,500 But even the fact that he goes out into the open Countryside, 153 00:09:05,500 --> 00:09:09,000 the text says, even so people from all around would come to 154 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,100 him. So still people from the 155 00:09:11,100 --> 00:09:15,100 Galilean area would here where Jesus was and the crowds would 156 00:09:15,100 --> 00:09:16,900 travel hours to come to find him. 157 00:09:18,500 --> 00:09:21,700 So the cats out of the bag now. So that's the end of our 158 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:23,400 passage, the healing of the leper. 159 00:09:24,100 --> 00:09:26,100 How is this reference in the catechism? 160 00:09:26,100 --> 00:09:29,700 How does the church develop teachings based on this passage? 161 00:09:30,300 --> 00:09:36,000 So, firstly, in paragraph, 26 16 which is in in relation to Jesus 162 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,000 in prayer. Talks about how Jesus answers 163 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,700 prayer, particularly the prayer of this leper and so paragraph 164 00:09:44,700 --> 00:09:48,500 2616 lists. A whole lot of people that Jesus 165 00:09:49,300 --> 00:09:53,300 responds to requests from, and the leper from this passage is 166 00:09:53,300 --> 00:09:57,900 listed as one of them. And then also in paragraph, 15 167 00:09:57,900 --> 00:10:01,600 over 4 is in the section. About Christ, The Physician and 168 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,000 I'll read out this paragraph because it's quite a nice 169 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,900 summary of Jesus role as a physical healer. 170 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:13,300 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe he makes use of signs to 171 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:17,900 heal spittle and the laying on of hands mud and washing the 172 00:10:17,900 --> 00:10:20,800 sick. Try to touch him for power came 173 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:22,600 forth from him and healed them all. 174 00:10:23,100 --> 00:10:27,300 And so in the sacraments Christ continues to touch Us in order 175 00:10:27,300 --> 00:10:30,800 to heal us. And that's quite a profound 176 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:32,600 Catholic teaching that's developed there in that 177 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:35,500 paragraph. Just as Jesus heals people 178 00:10:35,500 --> 00:10:38,200 physically, literally in the gospels like the leper. 179 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:42,500 Here, he continues to heal us today through the sacraments 180 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,300 Okay, so that's the end of our short passage today. 181 00:10:46,300 --> 00:10:47,700 Hopefully learn something new.