Fergal Mac Eoinín
Moses left practical advice for the treatment of lepers. As their condition was infectious, he authorised that they should be dressed distinctively, alert others to their condition and live away from others. This was written into the law which carried God’s imprimatur. When Jesus reached out to those who suffered this condition he must have been, in the minds of many of his contemporaries, in breach of God’s law.
In the face of fear the human reaction has always been to isolate the cause and contain it. The humane reaction was to reach out. In a world where we are accustomed to the addition of the letter “E” to many words, it is amazing how different the word human becomes when it attracts that letter. By adding that letter we didn’t add a function to the word, we added a quality. That quality was kindness in its many guises. It is called mercy, forgiveness, friendship, neighbourliness, helpfulness, understanding and love. It often requires bravery; like the boldness shown by Jesus when he bypassed the law in order to do better.
The medical miracles in the Gospel are often treated as demonstrations of Christ’s divine power. Others might focus on the theme of “Jesus restoring the most unwanted back to society.” Yet his mission was not simply a spectacular field-hospital. Nor was it just an exhortation to reach out to the outcasts. It is also a call to act. This is also a story about a man who was unafraid to challenge the faith around him, the same faith that his parents had given him. We place little emphasis on the brazenness of his action. Jesus did not adhere to the law.
Laws are authored by societies more to protect their particular interests than to legalise kindness. Generally they are good and establish a peaceful living environment. We certainly couldn’t live without them. That does not guarantee that all our laws will be good. No society can claim that. Every society is capable of enacting bad laws. For Jesus, this was equally true of a law that claimed God as its author. His action would have been very offensive to people who were trying to live good lives by following the law. It was a big risk.
When we are afraid, angry or agitated; when we are bruised, broken and beaten; when we are cautious, concerned or cornered we all write bad laws. Behind that kind mask of respectability, which now calls a leper a person with Hansen’s disease, lies the story of a continuous fear which has treated the outsider according to God’s law and not by Christ’s example. God’s law encourages us to establish institutions, ghettos and reservations, for the greater good, where we can place the people who discomfort us. That remains as true today as in the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and every other period of history. Many of us take comfort in the fact that our present society might not be perfect, but it is a lot better than some of the societies before it. Relative to what we have been or could be, we are not too bad.
But even if we are not too bad, is that good enough? If something can be made better should we not make it so? Anyone willing to stand for what is better can draw great inspiration from this Gospel. Jesus fled the area afterwards. This could have been as much to avoid blasphemy charges as to avoid being overwhelmed by people seeking healing. He would make a lot of things better. Nonetheless, they would crucify him later and still do.