By Fr. Salvic T. Pajarillo, O.Carm.
Friday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 2 Kings 25:1-12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Gospel: Matthew 8:1-4
Our Scripture today focuses on the covenant: its origin, its sign, its promise, its laws and requirements, its warnings and punishments. Yet within the rhythm of life according to the covenant, there is the memory of Jerusalem destroyed (Year 2), of lepers healed (Gospel) and of an elderly couple, long deprived of children being promised an offspring (Year 1) . While life may normally follow a regular routine, it can also be interrupted by God in surprising ways.
Laws are kept and laws are disregarded. When Jesus cured the man from some type of contagious skin disease he reminded him, “See to it that you tell no one. Go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses prescribed. That should be the proof they need.” We can’t help wondering, couldn’t the priests get along without the gift from a poor man who, because of his leprosy, had been long out of work? The gift was very small, but served to show that the former outcast was taken back into the full community of Israel. The leper would also be allowed to come into the temple again, after years of enforced absence. He would sense a return of self-respect and dignity, and there would be great rejoicing in the offering of his gift.
Laws are also sometimes disregarded for a good reason. Tradition prohibited a devout Jew from touching anyone legally unclean. Lepers were among the most unclean and were considered the untouchables. On hearing the leper’s urgent plea, “Sir, if you want to, you can cure me!” Jesus chose to set aside tradition and the law, and in a movement of compassion, stretched out and touched him – and cured him. In that miraculous moment, Jesus became ceremonially unclean and therefore was barred from entering the house of God along with the former leper. But it was not a disdainful breaking of the law. Jesus went around or above it, swept by the supreme law of compassion. One must keep laws in the spirit of their origin, which is the merciful goodness of God.
Yet the compassionate God allowed Jerusalem, the holy capital city of his covenanted people, to be destroyed, its temple burnt to the ground, the survivors of the long siege to be deported, with only a remnant left behind. There is a deep mystery here. Jesus, too, who healed the leper, would weep over Jerusalem as he announced its second destruction, this time by the Romans Luke 19:41). And yet hope continues to spring up, for “Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing” (Ps 126:5). The elderly couple – the ancient Jerusalem – will give birth to new life. Such is the covenant law of a compassionate God.
Fr. Salvic is a Carmelite missionary in Papua New Guinea.