“A man may lose the hair on his crown, and still be clean; may lose the hair on his forehead, and still be clean, despite his baldness. But if in the bald patch on crown or forehead a white or reddish tinge is shewing, the priest who finds it there will hold him unclean beyond all doubt; the bald patch is leprous. The man who is infected with leprosy, and segregated at the priest’s bidding, must go with rent garments and bared head, his face veiled, crying out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ And still, as long as he remains unclean through leprosy, he must dwell away from the camp, alone.”
Book of Leviticus, 13: 40-46 [link]
Here is a good meditation in the approach to Ash Wednesday and Lent. When we consider the campaign against the variety of skin diseases that are called ‘leprosy’ in the Bible, we must remember the association in the Hebrew mind of these physical infections of our bodies with the spiritual infection that we call sin. Another comparison with sin we see made in both old and new testaments is that of yeast as it is used to ‘infect’ bread, leavening it in the process. So, I don’t need to know too much medical information about skin diseases in the Egyptian desert to understand what the Holy One is trying to tells us about controlling its spread in the camps of the Israelites. Yes, God was looking to preserve the camp of the Israelites moving for decades in the desert from being overrun by illness, but we can also see this command to Moses and Aaron and their priests to control not only the physical contagion in the camp, but also to control the leprosy of sin from ruining God’s holy people and corrupting their unity. Lepers were asked to leave the camp and follow it at a distance, living without and clearly declaring themselves unclean to the others. In the early history of the Church, before our Confessions of sin were entered into the secrecy of the confessional, all serious sins were very public, the penances (even bodily penances) were very public, Christians who could not receive Holy Communion for being in a state of mortal sin could not hide it; they were practically walking outside the camp of the Church, declaring their state of mortal sin and excommunication to everyone. Only after their period of penance was finished could they return to the community of their fellow Christians. You will hear this, and you will say, How lucky we are that the Church changed her ways in this respect. But you can see what the early priests and bishops were trying to do – not just copy what Moses and Aaron had done long before them, but follow their logic: if you were so publicly shamed, you would sin less often. And so, on to the leprosy of sin.
“Then a leper came up to Him, asking for His aid; he knelt at His feet and said, ‘If it be Thy will, Thou hast power to make me clean.’ Jesus was moved with pity; He held out His hand and touched him, and said, ‘It is My will; be thou made clean.’ And at the word, the leprosy all at once left him, and he was cleansed. And He spoke to him threateningly, and sent him away there and then: ‘Be sure thou dost not speak of this at all,’ He said, ‘to anyone; away with thee, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift for thy cleansing which Moses ordained, to make the truth known to them.’ But he, as soon as he had gone away, began to talk publicly and spread the story round; so that Jesus could no longer go into any of the cities openly, but dwelt in lonely places apart; and still from every side they came to Him.”
Gospel of S. Mark, 1: 40-45 [link]
We cannot argue about this: we are all sinners – in one way or another, we have all fallen short, have lacked charity, have been cruel or careless, some of us are in the grip of serious sins that are hard to throw off, secret sins that we don’t like to confess to the priests, and we hate to bring even before the face of God, although we know he knows. But confess to Him we must, and through His priests. We shall happily not have to confess before the whole congregation, as did the early Christians, but we shall humble ourselves before the Holy One by whispering the necessary to His priests. That puts us right into the shoes of the leper in the gospel story, for we shall say to Christ through His priests, If you want to, you can cure me. In the face of the God-man we shall see the smile of Eternity, and the Holy One replies, Of course I want to, be cured. In a trice, the burden of days, or months, or for some of us years, falls away. We are delighted, we rush around in joy, pleased at the returned health of our souls, just as that poor leper – unclean for who knows how long – ran to tell everyone he could of his healing.
But that is certainly not the end of the story. Being cured does not preclude falling ill once more. For our human wills are weak and easily prey to the temptations that surround us every moment of every day. Avoiding the occasions of sin is not easy in the least. We have built wretched habits over a long period of time. But S. Paul says in our second reading, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, always be helpful, look for the advantage not of yourself but of others. That’s good advice, that is: occupy yourselves in charity, leave no time for sin.
“In eating, in drinking, in all that you do, do everything as for God’s glory. Give no offence to Jew, or to Greek, or to God’s church. That is my own rule, to satisfy all alike, studying the general welfare rather than my own, so as to win their salvation.”
First letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 10: 31-33 [link]
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 