Glory
to the Triune God!
The
Holy Gospel reading for the second Sunday of the Great Lent is from the Gospel
of St Luke 5:12-16; 4:40-41. We will focus on the Gospel reading related to
cleansing of leper.
“And
it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of
leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if
You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched
him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And
He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself
to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to
them, just as Moses commanded.”
However,
the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came
together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He
Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” (St Luke 5:12-16; NKJV).
The
Jewish Rabbis saw leprosy as the external manifestation of an internal
spiritual decay and hence focused on a spiritual care than a medical one. In
the Hebrew society, leprosy was 'tzaraat' and it encompassed a wide variety of
skin diseases also including the now known leprosy/Hansen's disease. One of the
earliest mentions of such disease in the Holy Scripture is the affliction of
Miriam, Moses's sister. She speaks ill of Moses when he married an Ethiopian
wife. This slander and gossip made Miriam to be stricken with illness that
leaves her skin flaky white. (The story is in Numbers 12).
Will
we be more careful with our words if we the result of gossip gave us skin deformity?
In
today's times, gossiping and spreading rumours about others is so much so much
prevalent that they no longer attract our attention. Gossiping /speaking ill
against a person or community leads to making the human (s)- the Lord'
creation, to an object of hate, anger and possibly dehumanize them.
We
don't like to accept that we indeed have flaws and that we need help. For us,
misgivings only exist in others. It is interesting to note that the
disease syphilis was called the "French disease" in Italy,
Malta, Poland and Germany, and the "Italian disease" in France. The
Dutch called it the "Spanish disease", the Russians called it the
"Polish disease", and the Turks called it the "Christian
disease". These "national" names served to act as the propaganda
against the countries seen as their political/national opponents. As stated
earlier, it helped to ‘dehumanize’ the ‘other’ people.
We
saw it happening earlier and we see it happening now. Genocide and riots start
with hate speech fed into the minds for days, months and years. In the
time of this Lenten season let us with tears and prayers, seek our Lord's help
as we hear racist hate speeches being orchestrated against the marginalized
communities.
The
prescribed ritual as seen in the book of Numbers and Leviticus is that the
leprosy afflicted person was quarantined for some days. In Jewish concept such
separation is seen as the time for repentance. After the prescribed
period, "the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall
examine him" (Leviticus 14:3; NKJV).
As
the 'chosen generation, a royal priesthood' (1 Peter 2:9), we are to go out
and seek those who are sick (physically and spiritually) and bring them to the
Church which the holy fathers have termed as a 'hospital'. In this Lenten season
let us reflect how many times have we chosen to condemn a brother rather than
help him to repent and come back!
Helping
the physically and spiritually sick was a community task. “So Miriam was
shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was
brought in again” (Numbers 12: 15; NKJV) The entire Israelite community
waited for Miriam before they could journey again.
Our
Orthodox faith teaches us that 'we may be lost alone but are saved together'!
"The
Messiah at the Gates of Rome" is a traditional story in the Jewish
tradition wherein Rabbi Joshua ben Levi has a vision in which he asks
Prophet Elijah "When will the Messiah come?" to which the response is
"The Messiah is at the gates of
Rome, sitting among the poor, the sick and wretched/lepers".
The
Holy Tradition tells us that St Peter was crucified in Rome. A story goes that
he was asked by fellow Christians to leave Rome for safety. While St Peter was escaping,
he saw a vision of Christ heading towards Rome. St Peter exclaims "Where
are you going Master" (Quo Vadis, Domine). Jesus responds that He is going
to Rome to be crucified again since St Peter is running away from martyrdom. St
Peter repents and goes back to Rome to fearlessly face the physical death.
Weren’t
we all outraged when a wall was built to cover the slums when the POTUS visited
our country? Isn’t that the way we are? We hate to admit as ours what is not
pleasing to ours and others senses.
And
in such times when we see the Lord walking away from us, we call to him and
ask- Quo Vadis, Domine? He will respond- "to the leper and outcasts
because you aren’t allowing them in your midst"!
The
leper in the Gospel reading might have been forgotten by the people (whereas
the healing and caring for the sick was a community calling) and he implores
the Lord to make him clean. The Lord wills that the leper is cleansed but also tells
to show himself to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing. This passage
also expounds on the importance of the sacrament of Holy Confession. If we
sincerely repent over our wrongdoings, we are instructed by the Lord to share it
with the confession father/priest for getting absolution.
Wishing
all a blessed season of fasting and repentance.
In
Christ,
Rincy
John
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