Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 – The unclean man must live outside the camp.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 31(32):1-2,5,11 – You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 – Take me for your model, as I take Christ.

Gospel: Mark 1:40-45 – The leprosy left the man at once, and he was cured.

The ancient people did not know as much medicine as we do today. Surely, medical practices (no matter how crude) evolved simultaneously with human development. But before the breakthrough we have today in the field of medicine, people afflicted with diseases usually suffered a lot of physical trauma apparently because of lack of known cures. However, there were certain diseases whose sufferers not only endured physical trauma, but more devastatingly, psychological and social trauma as well. One of such diseases was leprosy. From the Levitical account recounted in the first reading of today, we can see that leprosy disease was so frightening to the people that, “if a swelling or scab or shiny spot appears on a man’s skin, a case of leprosy of the skin is to be suspected”. The person was therefore treated as “unclean” and is consequently regarded as “guilty” of leprosy until proven “innocent” by the priests. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, the victims were made to dress in tatters and shout “unclean, unclean” if they must traverse a road frequented by “normal” people, or, if they must pass through an inhabited area; otherwise, the modus operandi was to live “outside the camp” with little or no human contact.

Like the Igbos of Nigeria and many other African tribes, the Jews lived community and communal lives. To live “outside the camp” implies to be totally rejected by the society – to be an outcast. The greatest social humiliation, therefore, was to live outside the camp, away and separate from kith and kin. Should someone miraculously get cured, it was only the priests, who doubled as health officers, who could give the person a clean bill of health. It was only with this certificate that the person could get reintegrated back into the mainstream society.

This Levitical laws and practices were still very prevalent when Jesus appeared on the stage. In the Gospel of today, a leper met Jesus along the way. The normal course of action would have been for the leper to shout the warning slogan of “unclean, unclean” so that both Jesus and his companions could take cover and avoid any direct contact with him as prescribed by the Law of Moses. But, instead of that warning slogan, the leper immediately changed the slogan into a prayer: “If you want to, you can cure me”. These were unheard of words from the mouth of a leper. And as if this was not shocking enough, Jesus did the unimaginable – he stretched out his hand and touched a leper. This singular action of Jesus would have fetched him a latae sententiae (automatic excommunication).

However, through his action, Jesus exhibited his infinite capacity to bear our sins and carry our sorrows by exchanging position with the leper: He sent him into the camp to go and obtain a certificate of health from the priests. But because the man proclaimed the news of his healing everywhere (in apparent disregard to the instruction of Jesus that he said nothing to anyone), Jesus himself could not go back to the camp. He “had to stay outside in places where nobody lived”. Let us just ponder this infinite love of Jesus: He had to make himself an outcast in order to reintegrate the outcasts. He was not infected with leprosy; yet, he had to live “outside the camp” if only that was the surest way he could reintegrate those living “outside the camp” back into the mainstream society.

Brothers and sisters, Christianity is all about exchanging position with the less privileged of the society. And the irony here is that, as a Christian, the moment you brave to live “outside the camp” not because of any contamination or infection at all, but simply to help those living outside the camp, then you will succeed in transforming the hitherto “outside camps” to become the real camps. Jesus had to stay outside the camp when he sent the leper to go inside the camp and show himself to the priest. But in staying outside the camp, he succeeded in drawing the whole people there and thereby making the “outside camp” safe for habitation. In fact, the “outside camp” became therefrom the “real camp” and centre of convergence. Early missionaries to Igbo land of Africa actually used this method to establish Christianity. Igbos had their own “outside camp” in the form of evil forests where those regarded as “real people” did not go. Only the outcasts of the society were ostracized to the evil forests where they had no contact with the rest of the population. When the missionaries demanded some parcel of land to build their churches, the locals gladly gave them as much of the evil forests as they could possibly take. This was, of course, with the expectation that the evil spirits associated with the evil forests would force the missionaries to fold up and leave their community. However, the missionaries not only survived, they thrived; and consequently built churches and schools in what then became mission lands. These churches and schools gradually transformed into the largest meeting points where the entire villages congregated either as Christians, school children, or simply curious and incredulous villagers investigating why the evil spirits had not chased these Christians away. The point is, because the early Christians accepted to be outcasts by living “outside the camp”, they succeeded in making those evil forests very habitable and prestigious to live – thanks to the example of Jesus himself.

The situation has dramatically changed since the early Christianity. But there continue to be in every epoch and millennium barrages of “outside camps” which differ from region to region, and from country to country. Where there are less privileged of the society, there is the “outside camp”. Where there are injustices and persecutions, there is the “outside camp”. Our mission as Christians must be how to reintegrate these “outside camp” individuals into the mainstream of the society even if it means exchanging positions with them.

Today is Valentine’s Day. The love we celebrate on Valentine’s Day is actually the bedrock of Christianity. Without love – love of God and love of neighbour – there is no Christianity. Exchanging positions with those living “outside the camp” is part of that love that makes Christianity. After all, the entire mission of Jesus Christ centres on this: Exchanging position with the sinful humanity; making himself guilty, though innocent, and paying the ransom with his life so that we, the guilty ones, could be saved and live.