Sunday Homily 2-12-12
Readings: Leviticus 13, 1-2, 44-46, The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall cry out, "Unclean."; Psalm 32, I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation; 1 Corinthians 10, 31-11, 1, Do everything for the glory of God; Mark 1, 40-45, If you wish, you can make me clean.
Leviticus: The book of the Levite tribe, the priestly tribe, one of the 12 tribes, a book of 27 chapters focused mostly on laws. The third book of the Torah after Genesis & Exodus, before Numbers & Deuteronomy.
Author: a collection of many sources, but not Moses (impossible).
Date: some laws go back 1400 BCE., others from ca. 450 BCE.
Subject matter: laws for better living with Yahweh. For instance in chapter 11, one may not eat pigs, camels, or rabbits, no animal with a divided hoof. All winged insects are unclean, except those that hop. In chapter 12, women are ritually unclean after giving birth, 7 days for boys, 14 days for girls. Chapter 19, "love one another as one's self." This morning's selection deals with how people with leprosy are to be treated. Leprosy, of course, was considered a punishment for sin & disobedience.
Note: an interesting example of how academics better understand these texts. They noted that both Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14 have similar lists of clean and unclean animals for eating. Deuteronomy 14, however, has 11 additional critters which are not mentioned in Leviticus 11. These 11 dwell only in the Arabian desert, not in Egypt or the land of Canaan (Holy Land). From this it can be deduced that the person (s) writing the laws in Leviticus had not wandered the desert and was writing before the Exodus. The writer (s) of Deuteronomy, however, had wandered the desert.
Source: The Book of Leviticus; Believe: Religious Information Source, Canon Tristam
Exclusion vs Inclusion
When I first lived in Kenya & Tanzania in the late 70's I spent time working on my Swahili in a Jesuit parish that was in a town called Tabora, Tanzania. The town is in the middle of Tanzania with no paved roads leading to it. Only a few roads in the town itself are paved. The parish had about 3 Jesuit priests in those days, if I remember correctly, a French Canadian, an Irish, and an Indian. Today the Jesuits have departed and handed it over to the diocese because of not enough Jesuit priests.
In those days the parish had 21 outstations, some of which even had other outstations further out. These were located in small villages where little mud walled churches had been put up. Occasionally I found a rather large cement block church left over from times when priests were more abundant. Each Sunday we would all head out on motorcycles to the outstations.
On the edge of Tabora there was a special community. A community of men & women who had leprosy. The exclusion of these lepers was similar to what we read in Leviticus, though they received better care. Our parish used to help them a lot and I went to say Mass for them and spent time talking with them often individually, sometimes in a group. Despite the effectiveness of modern medicine, many had significant scarring and were without hands or feet. I remember being touched mostly by the quality of their spirits and sense of acceptance.
I am reminded of this leper community when I read about the lepers in today's readings. Leviticus lays down the directives. Mark has Jesus dealing with a leper. I've already discussed Leviticus. Let me mention one main point relevant to Mark & his account.
It is inclusion.
Mark wants to convince Christians of Jewish & mostly Gentile background that they are included and that Jesus is the Messiah. This community probably lived in Galilee, that is, around the Sea of Galilee or in Syria. How do today's students of the bible know this? Because they analyzed the text and noted that Mark used Greek rather than Aramaic. Moreover, Mark describes geography typical of Galilee, not Jerusalem.
The miracle Mark describes today aims at inclusion in the community. Using the leper as a metaphor or symbol, he is telling especially the Gentile Christians, 'You are part of this community. You belong here. If Jesus can include a leper, then anyone and everyone is part of the community. Nobody is excluded.'
What does Leviticus instruct? What does Jesus do? He welcomes him. In fact, he does something that broke the law, and the people would be astounded, no, probably shocked and repulsed. He touched the leper. This was after Mark has the leper break the law by approaching Jesus. People around are saying, "Wow!", when they read Marks story.
This might be today's lesson for us. Inclusion. It may be easier for us to think of including a leper, because we know the virus is not that contagious and can be effectively treated. But HIV? What about other races, colors, religions, students from other schools?
Whom do I have trouble including in my community?
References: Austin Cline, Audience of Mark's Gospel (on line).
Picture 1: Mass Begins
Picture 2: The Community
Picture 3: Brooklyn walks
Picture 4: Charlie with Zoe & Georgie
Picture 5: Georgie with Zoe & Sienna
Picture 6: Torri with her granddad, Gilberto