This Sunday, we hear from Mark’s Gospel the account of Jesus and the leper. While we are all probably familiar with the healing of Christ and, when it comes to leprosy, His healing of the ten lepers, this healing is particularly profound for several reasons and carries a number of lessons that apply to the way we live in the modern day.

Having cast out a demon in the synagogue, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and preached, healed, and cast out demons throughout Galilee, Jesus is now out, presumably in a place isolated from the town. A leper approaches Him seeking healing. Here is the full account from Mark’s Gospel:

And a leper came to him begging him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45)

It’s a beautiful account of healing. To fully comprehend it, however, it is important to provide some background on leprosy.

In the Biblical times, leprosy accounted for a wide range of diseases of the skin. The context is therefore broad in just exactly what condition someone had when they were considered leprous. If we look back to the Old Testament, the first person to be afflicted with leprosy was actually Moses. In Exodus 4:6-9, when God is providing Moses with assistance for his mission to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, we see how Moses is provided with a sign for the people so that they might believe:

Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand into your bosom.” And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back into your bosom.” So he put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out , behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it upon the dry ground; and the water which you shall take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground.”

Moses did have leprosy, however he was healed by God so that the people would believe in the Lord and listen to Moses.

The next time we see leprosy is in the Book of Numbers (12:9-16), where Miriam is punished by God for speaking against Moses. Moses intercedes for her, asking the Lord to heal her, which He does, but not without punishment. Miriam is cast out and shut up outside the camp for seven days in isolation, and is then brought in again healed.

We also see a leper in Naaman, an army commander who we meet in the second Book of Kings. He learns from a maid of a prophet in Samaria who can heal him. He comes to the house of the prophet Elisha, likely expecting to see the prophet and be healed by him. However, Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman, who tells him to go and wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman, in spite of his anger at the prophet not coming out to cure him in the name of the Lord, goes down and dips himself in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh is restored. He then returns to Elisha and gives thanks to him and to God, seeking to give the prophet a gift, which he refuses to take. However, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, goes to Naaman and takes the gift for himself. When he returns to the prophet, Elisha punishes him by bringing upon Gehazi the leprosy of Naaman.

The final time we see a case of leprosy in the Old Testament is in the second Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 16-23), where King Uzziah enters the temple and burns incense on the altar of incense, something that only the priests were permitted to do. King Uzziah becomes angry when reproached by Azariah the priest and, upon becoming angry, leprosy breaks out on his forehead. He is then cast out and lives as a leper until his death, dwelling in a separate house.

In each of these manifestations of leprosy, it is either related to sin, or is used for the glory of God. In the cases of Moses and Naaman, their leprosy glorifies God by showing His gift of healing. In the cases of Miriam, Gehazi, and King Uzziah, leprosy is a punishment for their sinfulness.

In the Biblical times, leprosy was not just a disease. It was a sentence of punishment and isolation. The leper would lose his family, would be isolated from the community, and would not be able to enter the temple (ie. unable to go to church). It was more than just a physical disease. The psychological aspects were profound.

So when the leper approaches Jesus, he has likely undergone significant physical and psychological suffering. It is important to note how the leper approaches Jesus. We are told he kneels before Him. In Biblical times, particularly in the Old Testament, kneeling was something that was only done before God. It can thereby be inferred that the leper had faith that Jesus was God.

What is most profound are the words the leper speaks to Jesus:

“If you will, you can make me clean.”

If you will.

He does not demand that Jesus heal him. He does not say, “heal me.” He kneels before the Lord, with great humility and in what could be seen as an act of adoration of the Lord, and essentially surrenders himself to Jesus, putting it all in His hands, saying “if you will.”

He makes a request of the Lord, but he leaves it up to Jesus to choose to heal him.

Oftentimes we can get so caught up in our own will, in what we want, that we can begin to practically make demands of God. We can try to conform Him to our will, rather than surrendering to Him and allowing His Will to be done. The leper’s words are like a prayer in themselves. They echo the Our Father, when we say “Thy will be done.” But they also act as their own prayer, one that we can make our own:

“Lord, if you will, you can help me.”

“Lord, if you will, you can (insert request).”

We know that Jesus did will for the leper to be healed, and He has the power to Will our requests in prayer to be brought to fruition.

But we must take heed of what occurred after the leper was healed. Jesus sternly told the leper not to tell anyone but to go and present himself to the priest and follow the Mosaic Law. He tells him to do this because while Christ is not the Mosaic Law, but rather God Himself who makes clean and remains clean, He wants the people to follow the Law of the Covenant. He does not yet want to upset the priests, and He does not want to merely be seen as a healer-man, but wants the people to listen to and understand His preaching, His message.

The leper, however, did not do as the Lord asked, going and telling everyone what had happened. He may well have also broken the Mosaic Law. It is, in a sense, ironic, given that now Jesus would be viewed as unclean given He touched the leper in healing him. The leper was an outcast and has now been restored, but now Jesus, after having healed him, is an outcast Himself.

Many may wonder why we are told Jesus ‘sternly’ charges the leper not to tell anyone about his healing. There are only a few times where we see Jesus showing great emotion, becoming troubled – for example, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The most likely reason Jesus sternly charged the man is that He knows that what the man has asked for, God has delivered, but what God has asked for, the leper has not delivered. The leper’s actions following his healing contain echoes of the disobedience in the Garden of Eden, of sin. It is a demonstration of how, when we have our prayers answered and get what we wanted from God, we forget Him. We do not do His Will. We do not do as He asks.

While the leper acknowledges the providence and all-powerful Will of God, while he is a model of prayer for us, he does not end his story rightly.

We too can fail to do what is right. While leprosy is not so much a focus of the modern world, there is another kind of leprosy that is rife throughout the world. Biblically, leprosy was not just a physical disease, but also had a spiritual component – sin. That spiritual component is all too common today.

What we have now is a spiritual leprosy. When an individual contracted leprosy in Biblical times, they were cast out of their community. When we sin, we become isolated from God. Leprosy was a contagious disease. Sin also has a contagious effect. Leprosy as a disease affects the nerves, causing a loss of sensation. Likewise, the more we sin, the duller we become to sensation. Leprosy also disfigures the affected individual. So too does sin disfigure us, just not physically.

But there is healing for this spiritual leprosy. Just as in the old days of the Bible when lepers would be sent to the priest after healing, we too go to the priest for healing from our spiritual leprosy. This is not a physical healing, but a spiritual healing, a healing from sin, found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are healed through the priest by the great High Priest Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as He physically healed the leper, He wants to spiritually heal us.

But, just like the leper, only people who come to Jesus and meet Him can be healed.

Like the leper, we should also acknowledge the Will of God, falling on our knees in prayer if we have a request to make of Him. We should humble ourselves before Him. One of the most beautiful times to do this is in Eucharistic Adoration, when we are in the True Presence of Jesus Christ. As we humble ourselves before Him, we should, like the leper, in making our request, say those beautiful words to Him: “If you will.”

The Lord is all-powerful. He is Almighty, all great, all loving. He can do all things. We can do all things through Him. If we are seeking something, maybe certain graces or something else, He can Will for them to be granted to us. He can Will this for His glory, for the glory of His Kingdom.

But if God does give us something we ask for, when God gives us what He deems right for us, we must do what the leper failed to do and give thanks and praise to Him and follow His Will.

Like the leper, may we seek His Will.

Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, if You Will, let it be done.