The leper and the Touch

(Mk 1:40-45)

"He who proclaims makes God's own desire, who pines for the distant. He knows no enemies, only fellow travellers. He does not stand as a master, he knows that the search for God is common and must be shared, that the closeness of Jesus is never denied to anyone" [Pope Francis].

The nameless leper represents us. And the Touch of Jesus sums up his life, teaching and mission.

It manifests itself especially when the environment marginalises the uniqueness of the soul, and a part of us seems impatient, wants the new.

Certain established aspects no longer belong to us. Such moral certainty in the soul is a precious spy, not to be silenced.

In the restless, ill-judged person there is often an external - conditioned - aversion and an intuitive, internal one too.

We are not placated by the artificial lifestyle we lead, almost forced - or even by the very idea of us.

So we ask: is there any therapy to the mechanisms that do not belong to us, and to those that we instinctively consider in our character, outdated?

Yes, because discomfort can become knowledge: it is a primordial language that can guide us towards change.

Disaffection and the perception of estrangement give rise to new awareness.

Discontent generates shock, dreams of expectation, hence the now unpostponable Exodus.

Where to look for trust and support, to overcome automatisms?

In the Living One Himself, who is all off the rails, and is not afraid to defile Himself - not even with an individual covered in disease and cracks ["leper": v.40].

No one with 'leprosy' or skin disease could approach anyone - least of all a man of God - but Mc wants to emphasise that it is the customary way of understanding religion [and one's 'place'] that makes one unclean.

Legalistic norms marginalise people and guilt them, make them feel dirty inside - inculcating that sense of unworthiness that negatively affects their evolution.

Of course, made transparent in God, we all catch ourselves full of evil. But this must not mark our history, because of fallibility; with a cloak of insuperable identifications.

In this way, perception does not disintegrate into torment. On the contrary, relentlessly shifting gaze presents horizons, suggests paths, triggers even transgressive reactions - at least from the point of view of intransigent indictments, all far removed from real life.

We are challenged even by the banality of concatenations, but our today and tomorrow may not result from our yesterday [fabric of any, predictable sentences].

In Christ, poverty becomes more than a hope (vv.40-42). So, beware of models!

One does not have to be 'worldly and precise' to have 'then' the right to present oneself to God: his Love is symptomatic and engaging, because it does not wait for the other's perfections first.

The Source of the Free transforms and makes it transparent: it does not modulate generosity on the basis of merits - on the contrary, of needs.

The archaistic religious directive accentuated exclusions - thus chastising the infirm to solitude, to social marginalisation.

The leper had to live apart. But having realised that only the Person of the Lord could make him 'pure', he set aside the Law that had chastised him for vacuous prejudices.

Mk means: do not be afraid to denounce by your own initiative that certain customs are contrary to God's plan.

As a matter of fact, there is no way to get close to Christ (i.e. to have a personal relationship) without each of us inventing a chance that dribbles the usual people around Him - and absolutely does not follow their mentality.

The devout or sophisticated environment will try to curb any individual eccentricity.

But in our relationship with God and to realise life, it is decisive that we remain lovers of direct communication.

In every condition we are in eccentric dialogue with the regenerative and superior Source; passionate about the experience of love, which does not exist without freedom.

To help the precarious brother on whom the sentence of impurity hangs - "neighbour" seen as inappellably defiled - even the Son transgresses the religious prescription!

In order to remain undefiled, the sacred precept required to be on guard against lepers - afflicted with an evil that corrodes within, the very image of sin.

That unscrupulous gesture also imposes on us overly considerate people the practice of risk, of demystification.

Indeed, by rule of religion the Lord himself with his Touch becomes a polluted person to be healed and kept at a distance (v.45) - disenfranchised.

However, by reinterpreting the prescriptions of the beginning (v.44) Jesus reveals the face of the Father: he wants each of us to be able to live with others and be accepted, not segregated. 

He is saying to his own, who were already showing strange tendencies in the first communities: you are obliged to welcome in everything even the misfits, outcasts and wretches, and let them take an active part in the liturgies, the meetings, the joy of the feasts.

The Risen One (v.45) continues to suggest to us, challenging public opinion:

"The certificate of healing I will provide, to the people you make feel guilty. My church leaders are not to endorse, but only to note that I have absorbed the fault of the missing - indeed, it will become astonishment in me'.

A truly amiable proposal, free of forcing and dissociation.

In the attitude of an inverted spirituality - neither selective nor empty - here we are driven to the enthusiastic proclamation of the concrete experience each person has with the person of Christ.

This even if at first it may be lacking, because He does not like to be considered a triumphant king of this world (v.44a).

Beautiful, however, is this subversion: that which unites divine and human traits in an incomparable way.

For each, without hysterical tares.

Reversal that offers us God's purity and entrusts our uncertainty to Him: indeed, the only "scandalous" subversion that brings together many crowds "from all sides" (v.45).

Indeed, the Tao Tê Ching (LXIII) says:

"He plans the difficult in his easy, he works the great in his small: the most difficult undertakings under heaven certainly begin in the small. That is why the saint does not work the great, and thus can complete his greatness'.

This is natural Wisdom, which conveys self-confidence, and will amaze us with flourishes. Complicity of a God who is finally not unpleasant.

Eternal One who makes Himself Present in the very foundation and meaning of the divine-human place on earth, His Vineyard of inapparent.

Thus he can break down the barriers of 'religious' defects, and make everyone feel adequate.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you challenge the public opinion of your time, to foster the practice of equality, freedom, convivial love?

Have you ever marvelled at your shadow sides, which have become precious pearls, of unprecedented value?

Have you encountered passionate guides, who taught you to love your religious flaws?

Ritual purity is completely incidental

The evangelical proclamation of 'beatitude', of happiness, retains and increases its full validity today, when Catholics and all people of good will throughout the world are invited to express their solidarity with their leprous brethren with a concrete and active gesture.

Leprosy! The very name, even today, inspires in everyone a sense of dismay and horror. We know from history that this feeling was strongly perceived among the ancients, particularly among the peoples of the East, where, for climatic and hygienic reasons, this disease was very much felt. In the Old Testament (cf. Lev 13-14) we find detailed and minute case histories and legislation regarding those afflicted by the disease: ancestral fears, the widespread conception of fatality, incurability and contagion, forced the Jewish people to use the appropriate preventive measures, through the isolation of the leper, who, considered in a state of ritual impurity, found himself physically and psychologically marginalised and excluded from the family, social and religious events of the chosen people. Moreover, leprosy was a mark of condemnation, as the disease was considered a punishment from God. All that remained was the hope that the power of the Most High would heal the afflicted.

Jesus, in his mission of salvation, often encountered lepers, these beings disfigured in form, deprived of the reflection of the image of the glory of God in the physical integrity of the human body, authentic wrecks and refuse of the society of the time.

Jesus' encounter with lepers is the type and model of his encounter with every man, who is healed and brought back to the perfection of the original divine image and readmitted to the communion of God's people. In these encounters Jesus manifested himself as the bearer of new life, of a fullness of humanity long lost. Mosaic legislation excluded, condemned the leper, forbade approaching him, speaking to him, touching him. Jesus, instead, shows himself, first of all, sovereignly free with respect to the ancient law: he approaches, speaks, touches, and even heals the leper, heals him, restores his flesh to the freshness of that of a child. "Then there came to him a leper," we read in Mark, "begging him on his knees and saying to him, "If you want, you can heal me! Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, "I will, heal him!" Immediately the leprosy disappeared and he was healed" (Mark 1:40-42; cf. Matth. 8:2-4; Luc. 5:12-15). The same will happen to ten other lepers (cf. Luc. 17: 12-19). "The lepers are healed! ", this is the sign that Jesus gives for his messianicity to the disciples of John the Baptist, who came to question him (Matth. 11:5). And to his disciples Jesus entrusts his own mission: "Preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand . ., heal the lepers" (Matth. 10: 7 ff.). He also solemnly affirmed that ritual purity is completely ancillary, that the truly important and decisive one for salvation is moral purity, that of the heart, of the will, which has nothing to do with the stains of the skin or of the person (Ibid. 15, 10-20).

But the loving gesture of Christ, who approached the lepers, comforting and healing them, has its full and mysterious expression in the Passion, in which he, tortured and disfigured by the sweat of blood, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, the exclusionary rejection of the people already benefited, comes to identify himself with the lepers, becomes the image and symbol of them, as the prophet Isaiah had intuited when contemplating the mystery of the Servant of Yahweh: "He has no appearance or beauty.. despised and rejected by men . . like one before whom one covers one's face, ... and we judged him chastened, beaten by God and humiliated" (Is. 53:2-4). But it is precisely from the wounds of Jesus' mangled body and the power of his resurrection, that life and hope spring forth for all men affected by evil and infirmity.

The Church has always been faithful to the mission of proclaiming the Word of Christ, combined with the concrete gesture of solidarity and mercy towards the least. Over the centuries, there has been an overwhelming and extraordinary crescendo of dedication to those afflicted by the most humanly repugnant diseases, and in particular leprosy, whose gloomy presence continued to persist in the eastern and western worlds. History makes it clear that it was the Christians who first became interested and concerned about the problem of lepers. Christ's example had set a school and was fruitful in solidarity, dedication, generosity, and selfless charity.

In the history of Christian hagiography, the episode concerning Francis of Assisi has remained emblematic: he was young, like you; like you he sought joy, happiness, glory; yet he wanted to give total and definitive meaning to his own existence. Among all the horrors of human misery, Francis felt an instinctive repugnance for lepers. But lo and behold, one day he encountered one, while on horseback near Assisi. He felt great revulsion, but, not to fail in his commitment to become a 'knight of Christ', he leapt from the saddle and, as the leper extended his hand to receive alms, Francis handed him money and kissed him (Cf. TOMMASO DA CELANO, Vita seconda di San Francesco d'Assisi, I, V: "Fonti Francescane", I, p. 561, Assisi 1977; S. BONAVENTURA DA BAGNOREGIO, Leggenda maggiore, I, 5: ed. cit, p. 842).

The great expansion of the Missions in modern times has given new impetus to the movement in favour of the leprous brothers. In all regions of the world the Missionaries have encountered these sick, abandoned, rejected, victims of social and legal disqualifications and discrimination, which degrade man and violate the fundamental rights of the human person. The missionaries, out of love for Christ, have always proclaimed the Gospel even to lepers, they have tried by all means to help them, to cure them with all the possibilities that medicine, often primitive, could offer, but especially they have loved them, freeing them from loneliness and incomprehension and sometimes sharing their lives fully, because they saw in the disfigured body of their brother the image of the suffering Christ. We wish to recall the heroic figure of Father Damien de Veuster, who spontaneously chose and asked his Superiors to be segregated among the lepers of Molokai, to remain with them and to communicate to them the hope of the Gospel, and finally, stricken by the disease, shared the fate of his brothers until his death.

But with him we wish to remember and present to the admiration and example of the world the thousands of missionaries, priests, religious men and women, lay people, catechists, doctors, who have wanted to be friends of the lepers, and whose edifying and exemplary generosity is today a comfort and a spur to us, to continue the human and Christian "fight against leprosy and all leprosy", which is rampant in contemporary society, such as hunger, discrimination, underdevelopment.

[Pope Paul VI, Homily XXV World Leprosy Day 29 January 1978].

Dear brothers and sisters!

[...] in his public life Jesus healed many sick people, revealing that God wants life for human beings, life in its fullness. This Gospel (Mk 1:40-45) shows us Jesus in touch with a form of disease then considered the most serious, so serious as to make the person infected with it “unclean” and to exclude that person from social relations: we are speaking of leprosy. Special legislation (cf. Lev 13-14) allocated to priests the task of declaring a person to be “leprous”, that is, unclean; and it was likewise the priest’s task to note the person’s recovery and to readmit him or her, when restored to health, to normal life.

While Jesus was going about the villages of Galilee preaching, a leper came up and besought him: “If you will, you can make me clean”. Jesus did not shun contact with that man; on the contrary, impelled by deep participation in his condition, he stretched out his hand and touched the man — overcoming the legal prohibition — and said to him: “I will; be clean”.

That gesture and those words of Christ contain the whole history of salvation, they embody God’s will to heal us, to purify us from the illness that disfigures us and ruins our relationships. In that contact between Jesus’ hand and the leper, every barrier between God and human impurity, between the Sacred and its opposite, was pulled down. This was not of course in order to deny evil and its negative power, but to demonstrate that God’s love is stronger than all illness, even in its most contagious and horrible form. Jesus took upon himself our infirmities, he made himself “a leper” so that we might be cleansed.

A splendid existential comment on this Gospel is the well known experience of St Francis of Assisi, which he sums up at the beginning of his Testament: “This is how the Lord gave me, Brother Francis, the power to do penance. When I was in sin the sight of lepers was too bitter for me. And the Lord himself led me among them, and I pitied and helped them. And when I left them I discovered that what had seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness in my soul and body. And shortly afterward I rose and left the world” (FF, 110).

In those lepers whom Francis met when he was still “in sin” — as he says — Jesus was present; and when Francis approached one of them, overcoming his own disgust, he embraced him, Jesus healed him from his “leprosy”, namely, from his pride, and converted him to love of God. This is Christ’s victory which is our profound healing and our resurrection to new life!

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 12 February 2012]

My beloved brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

Your presence arouses in me tenderness and compassion, some of the feelings that Jesus Christ felt when he received the sick. He bent over human suffering, over the wounds of the body, and revived serenity, confidence and courage in people's hearts. I would like this visit to have the same spiritual effect; and I would like to have more time to talk to each one, because I love you very much, I suffer seeing you suffer and I want to comfort you all.

And why do I love you? Because you are human persons, loved by God, and by his son Jesus Christ, who suffered so much for you, because the Catholic Church, like Jesus Christ, loves you and will do all it can for you.

I am leaving; but I ask Monsignor Bishop - who is your great friend and to whom this work of Cumura is due - and the doctors, nurses and all those who assist you, that they do you all the good that the Pope would wish you if he could remain here with you. And I leave you, as a reminder, the message that, from here and now, I address to the whole Church, with an appeal on your behalf.

Do not let yourselves be defeated! Suffering always has value. It can teach the world what love like the love of Jesus means. And may this life of yours serve to help your neighbour, to receive and transmit moral strength; and, if you are Christian, may you transmit the power of renewal and the joy of Christ. He rose from the dead so that all might have access to eternal life. Your suffering can make the world a better place, if you are friends of God and friends of each other, if you unite serenity, confidence and courage with the progress of medicine and the goodwill of those who care for you with love.

I will never forget you and I trust in your friendly remembrance. I will pray for you and rely on your prayers. I impart to you with all my heart the Apostolic Blessing.

[Pope John Paul II, Leprosarium in Cumura, Guinea Bissau, 28 January 1990]

[...] The evangelist Mark is telling us of Jesus' action against all kinds of evil, for the benefit of those who suffer in body and spirit: the possessed, the sick, sinners... He presents himself as the one who fights and overcomes evil wherever he encounters it. In today's Gospel (cf. Mk 1:40-45) this fight of His confronts an emblematic case, because the sick person is a leper. Leprosy is a contagious and merciless disease, which disfigures the person, and was a symbol of impurity: the leper had to stay out of built-up areas and signal his presence to passers-by. He was marginalised by the civil and religious community. He was like the walking dead.

The episode of the healing of the leper unfolds in three short passages: the invocation of the sick person, Jesus' response, and the consequences of the prodigious healing. The leper begs Jesus "on his knees" and says to him: "If you wish, you can cleanse me" (v. 40). To this humble and trusting prayer, Jesus reacts with a profound attitude of his soul: compassion. And 'compassion' is a very profound word: compassion that means 'suffering-with-another'. Christ's heart manifests God's paternal compassion for that man by approaching him and touching him. And this detail is very important. Jesus "stretched out his hand and touched him ... and immediately the leprosy disappeared from him and he was cleansed" (v. 41). God's mercy overcomes all barriers and Jesus' hand touches the leper. He does not place himself at a safe distance and does not act by proxy, but exposes himself directly to the contagion of our evil; and so it is precisely our evil that becomes the place of contact: He, Jesus, takes from us our sick humanity and we take from him his healthy and healing humanity. This happens every time we receive a Sacrament with faith: the Lord Jesus 'touches' us and gives us his grace. Here we think especially of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which heals us from the leprosy of sin.

Once again, the Gospel shows us what God does in the face of our evil: God does not come to "lecture" us on pain; neither does he come to eliminate suffering and death from the world; rather, he comes to take upon himself the weight of our human condition, to carry it to the end, to free us radically and definitively. This is how Christ fights the evils and sufferings of the world: by taking them upon himself and overcoming them with the power of God's mercy.

To us, today, the Gospel of the healing of the leper tells us that, if we want to be true disciples of Jesus, we are called to become, united with him, instruments of his merciful love, overcoming all kinds of marginalisation. To be "imitators of Christ" (cf. 1 Cor 11:1) when faced with a poor person or a sick person, we must not be afraid to look them in the eye and approach them with tenderness and compassion, and to touch and embrace them. I have often asked people who help others to do so by looking them in the eye, not to be afraid to touch them; that the gesture of helping is also a gesture of communication: we too need to be welcomed by them. A gesture of tenderness, a gesture of compassion... But I ask you: when you help others, do you look them in the eye? Do you welcome them without fear of touching them? Do you welcome them with tenderness? Think about this: how do you help? At a distance or with tenderness, with closeness? If evil is contagious, so is good. Therefore, good must abound in us, more and more. Let us be infected by the good and let us infect the good!

[Pope Francis, Angelus 15 February 2015]

New life-wave

(Mk 1:29-39)

The Lord does not admit the misunderstanding of a faith that reduces him to the same level as acclaimed santons and healers (vv.34b.36-38).

Too many seek him just for this, even the closest followers (vv.29.36b), but the Son of God prevents his intimates the popular chatter [alway on the prowl] hunting for the extraordinary (vv.34b.37).

It is adherence to his lifestyle that helps to recover (vv.30-34a).

For evangelized people who become announcers, keeping oneself upright is linked to an evolving Faith, therefore to an attitude of renewal (vv.38-39).

Already in the synagogue the Lord had stirred the waters of quietism.

So He doesn’t miss the opportunity to "touch" a woman [at that time, a non-person] and make himself legally impure through direct contact with the sick.

Moreover, no rabbi would ever let himself be served by a woman.

In short, Jesus puts into question not only theology, but upset the assumptions of human and spiritual relationships.

Only ‘service’ counts, in all the ancient conception considered unworthy thing for a perfect development of the personality.

Especially in the classical mentality, characteristic of the human being was the domination and the estrangement to every sense of neighbour.

Then, in this upheaval, the disciples' idea to talk directly to Jesus about the difficulties they cannot provide for is excellent (v.30b).

Faced with problems, imbalances, needs of one's own and others - before rushing to come up with rough solutions - addressing the Lord is the most sensible choice to make, for a basic healing.

Non-life presuppositions make us prisoners, unable to move towards God and the brothers.

In Christ we are called to introduce the blockages of those who are narrowed by difficulties, into a new condition.

The suffocated energy bubble that compresses us characterizes humanity even of the past, and re-proposes itself.

In short, the attendance of places of prayer (v.29) must lead us - like Jesus - to ignore some laws of purity, if dehumanizing.

Non-negotiable principle of the Gospels is the real good of concrete women and men, as they are and where they are.

While succeeding, we will reject the temptation to success (v.35).

Last note on Mk’s brushstroke about the story of Peter’s mother-in-law, who finds her unexpressed virtues thanks to contact with the person of the Lord.

Icon of a still narrowing mental model, which stifles the youth of being and doing.

In the soul of the ancient people, the disregarded, stifled, denied, unused talents had become hardships.

Now Christ the Present cares for such "inflammations". We are no longer made ‘mute’ and ‘dependent’ on the situation or inherited mentality.

And «relieved» in caring for oneself and others, the return to fluid life becomes easy, even with minimal gestures.

The intimately taut or suffocated resources - that appealed us with tightness in the chest - surface, and dilate also in favour of others.

The "mother-in-law" once lying down, breathes and overcomes ageing. She rediscovers and expresses her skills.

This is the healing action of Jesus, all at the gates of each one.

[Wednesday 1st wk. in O.T.  January 14, 2026]

The liberated mother-in-law and her journey (female)

(Mk 1:29-39)

"The essential thing is to listen to what rises from within. Our actions are often nothing more than imitation, hypothetical duty or misrepresentation of what a human being should be. But the only true certainty that touches our lives and our actions can only come from the springs that gush deep within ourselves. One is at home under the sky, one is at home anywhere on this earth if one carries everything within oneself. I have often felt, and still feel, like a ship that has taken on board a precious cargo: the ropes are cut and now the ship goes, free to sail everywhere".

(Etty Hillesum, Diary)

The Lord does not allow the misunderstanding of a faith that vulgarises Him. Jesus is not an all-intimate counsellor, nor a practitioner without Mystery.

Christ is not a miracle-worker - a freak - handcuffed in the manner of acclaimed holy men and healers (vv.34b.36-38).

Too many seek him out because of this, even his closest followers (vv.29.36b), but the Son of God prevents popular chatter, always chasing the extraordinary (vv.34b.37).

It is adherence to his way of life that helps one to rise up (vv.30-34a).

For the evangelised who become proclaimers, keeping up is linked to an evolving Faith, hence to the attitude of restarting (vv.38-39).

But on the Sabbath it was even forbidden to visit and care for the sick.

Already in the synagogue, the Lord had stirred the fetid waters of quietism.

Here he did not miss the opportunity to 'touch' a woman (at that time, a non-person) and make himself legally impure through direct contact with the sick woman.

Then, no rabbi would ever let himself be served by a woman.

Jesus challenges not only post-liturgical theology and purism, but upsets the assumptions of human and spiritual relationships.

Only 'service' counts, in all ancient conception considered unworthy for a perfect development of the personality.

[Even more so for the propagandistic expansion of archaic religions - armed with all their antiquated baggage, which only made souls sick].

Above all, in the ancient and classical mentality, characteristic of the human being was dominance, a sense of individual strength and clan or nation; alienation from all sense of neighbour.

So, in such a turnaround, the disciples' idea of speaking directly to Jesus about the difficulty they do not know how to deal with is excellent (v.30).

In the face of garbles, imbalances, their own and other people's needs - before rushing to bungle sloppy solutions - turning to the Lord is the most sensible choice to make, for fundamental healing.

Assumptions of non-life make us prisoners, unable to move towards God and our brothers and sisters.

In Christ we are called to bring the blocks of those who are restricted by difficulties into a new condition.

The bubble of stifled energy that compresses us characterises the humanity of the past too, and it recurs (v.31b).

Attending places of prayer must lead us - like Jesus - to ignore certain laws of purity; even to transgress the abstract norm of religion, if it dehumanises.

The only non-negotiable principle is the real good of the concrete woman and man, as they are and where they are; in their integrity.

We only honour God - like Christ - by valuing the excesses or absorbing the 'impurities' of sisters and brothers, in order to restore their dignity and motivation.

And while succeeding, we reject the temptation of success (v.35).

More important than being acclaimed is to continue the work of Announcement and Benevolence, without hesitation. Even in remote places.

One must not be deceived by the appearances of the urban and central apostolate that is always well organised.

One must flee both legalism and bungling enthusiasm, to go and find a new geography, and people where they are.

The Gospel requires an itinerant commitment, full of surprises.

This applies to the ecclesial bureaucracy itself, which sometimes unfortunately continues to stall many genuine pastoral initiatives, willingly hijacking them.

In difficult choices, prayer (v.35) becomes a bridge connecting life with our sacred centre, where God himself dwells and expresses himself - guiding us in a superior way.

Precisely, the Son prays because the followers seem exalted by success.

They allow themselves to be carried away by external passion and self-love, instead of evaluating with deep instinct and reason.

At this rate, they would lose their ability to succour infirmities of all kinds.

In fact, it was precisely the leaders "set out on his trail" - like "Pharaoh" and his militia (Ex 14:8-9) to prevent the Exodus (cf. Mk 1:38) to another land. 

That of Jesus being forced to flee from the clutches of his own who want to take him hostage in order to live by reflected light and be revered by the crowds, is unfortunately still a story of our times - to be eradicated without much ado.

It is no coincidence that the Lord leads the disciples to involve themselves "preaching in their synagogues throughout Galilee and casting out demons" (v.39).

As if the dark powers that had been annihilating the people since then were lurking in the very places of ancient worship and the official religious institution.

The liberated mother-in-law and her (female) path

A final note on Mk's brushstroke on the story of Peter's mother-in-law, a "woman" who rediscovers her unexpressed capacities through contact with the person of the Lord.

An icon of a mental model that is still narrow, that stifles the youth of being and doing.

Ancient figure, of a tradition (of inherited religiosity) that holds back the intimate resources of the people [in Hebrew Israèl is female].

A world of restraints that make one uncomfortable, because of stifled, compressed energies - before Christ disappeared. To the point of not realising they are still inside.

I imagine precisely that such an old woman who literally 'resurrects' can be reinterpreted with spiritual fruit, for the journey of us all.

The Lord frees; he heals "inflammations". He gives greater joy of life.

He imparts an elixir of youth - especially when we feel held as dependents or slaves, without space.

Stuck and rendered dumb by the transmitted culture or situation, not only of health.

"And they came out of the synagogue into the house of Simon and Andrew together with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay feverish, and they told him about her. And approaching him he made her stand up by taking his hand. And the fever left her and served them" (vv.29-31).

There are revealing symptoms of discomfort: e.g. a life - even a spiritual one - that does not fit... because it denies abilities, constrains them, keeps them in a corner, does not allow them to be used.

To the point of no longer knowing what they are.

Here come symptoms that lie us down: anxious, mortifying, and feelings of constriction and dependence.

One would perhaps like to do something different, but then there are fears, tightness in the chest that close the horizon and make one tense, (even at that time) uncomfortable, stressed, blocked.

In the soul of the ancient people, talents disregarded, denied, unused had become hardships.

Now in Christ Present, the return to the fluid life, as well as the care of self and others, becomes easy, with minimal gestures.

The abilities that made intimate appeal, surface, and dilate in favour of others.

Relieved, the 'mother-in-law' breathes and overcomes ageing.

Before, sadness perhaps appeared, because the desire for a new birth was stifled by the many chores to be done or other cravings (fevers) that plant us there and do not restart feelings.

We know, however, that life restarts the moment someone helps to heal the sharp actions ["hand" constricted: Mt 8:15; Mk 1:31] and widen our gaze towards what is conversely blossoming in us.

By shifting perception from what nags us (torments and hinders) to what arises more spontaneously and is finally and unexpectedly valued, the blocks of tender, fresh energy disappear.

Then the garb of the ancient role is laid aside and we no longer give up expressing ourselves.

Also - for us - without closing ourselves off in the usual environment and way of doing things, which intimately do not belong to us.

Whoever gives the other a proper space draws on the virtues of our inner, evergreen primordial states - and opens up those of all.

All for a growth that does not only correspond to a precipitous elevation, but rather to a better grounding in the being of people.

By hibernating the burden of duties or models that do not correspond, life is renewed.

We realise that we are as if inhabited by the divine Gold that wants to surface and express itself with breadth, instead of remaining tense and controlled.

This is the healing action of Jesus, all at everyone's doorstep.

In fact, another great novelty of the new Rabbi's proposal - which was spreading - was the acceptance of women as we would say today "deaconesses" [v.31 cf. Greek verb] of the Church. Here in the figure of the House of Peter: "of Simon and Andrew, together with James and John" (v.29).

This was what had been happening since the middle of the first century (cf. Rom 16:1) and still has much to teach us.

With God, one cannot get used to (multi)secular formalities emptied of life.

But religious traditions resisted the onslaught of the Faith-Love experience: even in the mid-1970s, communities did not feel free to gather those in need of care until the evening (v.32).    

It was indeed a Sabbath day - and after leaving the synagogue. The same impediment and delay is described in the episode of the Magdalene at the tomb on Easter morning. 

Cultural heritage and religious conformity remained a great burden for the experience of the personal Saviour Christ.

Customs still remained a snare for the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of "il Monte".

The Tao writes (xxviii):

"He who knows he is male, and keeps himself female, is the strength of the world; being the strength of the world, virtue never separates itself from him, and he returns to being a child. He who knows himself to be white, and keeps himself dark, is the model of the world; being the model of the world, virtue never departs from him; and he returns to infinity. He who knows himself to be glorious, and maintains himself in ignominy, is the valley of the world; being the valley of the world, virtue always abides in him; and he returns to being crude [genuine, not artificial]. When that which is crude is cut off, then they make instruments of it; when the holy man uses it, then he makes them the first among ministers. For this the great government does no harm'.

Master Wang Pi comments thus:

"That of the male is here the category of those who precede, that of the female is the category of those who follow. He who knows that he is first in the world must put himself last: that is why the saint postpones his person and his person is premised. A gorge among the mountains does not seek out creatures, but these of themselves turn to it. The child does not avail itself of wisdom, but adapts itself to the wisdom of spontaneity".

In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas we read in Nos. 22-23:

"Jesus saw little ones taking milk.

And he said to his disciples:

"These little sucklings resemble those

Who are entering the Kingdom.

They asked him:

"If we are like those babies, will we enter the Kingdom?"

Jesus answered them:

"When you make two things one and make

The inner equal to the outer and the outer equal to the inner

And the superior equal to the inferior,

When you reduce the male and the female to one being

So that the male is not only male

And the female does not remain only female,

When you consider two eyes as a unit of eye

But one hand as a unit of hand

And one foot as a unit of foot,

A vital function in place of a vital function

Then you will find the entrance to the Kingdom".

"Jesus said:

"I will choose you one from a thousand and two from ten thousand.

And these shall be found to be one individual'".

To internalise and live the message:

How has the Encounter with the Lord and His personal Touch healed you, made you young and whole?

Dear brothers and sisters

Today's Gospel (cf. Mk 1:29-39) [...] presents to us Jesus who, after preaching on the Sabbath in the synagogue of Capernaum, heals many sick people, beginning with Simon's mother-in-law. Upon entering Simon's house, he finds her lying in bed with a fever and, by taking her hand, immediately heals her and has her get up. After sunset, he heals a multitude of people afflicted with ailments of every kind. The experience of healing the sick occupied a large part of Christ's public mission and invites us once again to reflect on the meaning and value of illness, in every human situation. This opportunity is also offered to us by the World Day of the Sick which we shall be celebrating next Wednesday, 11 February, the liturgical Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Despite the fact that illness is part of human experience, we do not succeed in becoming accustomed to it, not only because it is sometimes truly burdensome and grave, but also essentially because we are made for life, for a full life. Our "internal instinct" rightly makes us think of God as fullness of life indeed, as eternal and perfect Life. When we are tried by evil and our prayers seem to be in vain, then doubt besets us and we ask ourselves in anguish: what is God's will? We find the answer to this very question in the Gospel. For example, in today's passage we read that Jesus "healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons" (Mk 1: 34); in another passage from St Matthew it says that Jesus "went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people" (Mt 4: 23). Jesus leaves no room for doubt: God whose Face he himself revealed is the God of life, who frees us from every evil. The signs of his power of love are the healings he performed. He thus shows that the Kingdom of God is close at hand by restoring men and women to their full spiritual and physical integrity. I maintain that these cures are signs: they are not complete in themselves but guide us towards Christ's message, they guide us towards God and make us understand that man's truest and deepest illness is the absence of God, who is the source of truth and love. Only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without truth would not be life. The Kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love and thus is healing in the depths of our being. One therefore understands why his preaching and the cures he works always go together: in fact, they form one message of hope and salvation.

Thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' work is extended in the Church's mission. Through the sacraments it is Christ who communicates his life to multitudes of brothers and sisters, while he heals and comforts innumerable sick people through the many activities of health-care assistance that Christian communities promote with fraternal charity. Thus they reveal the true Face of God, his love. It is true: very many Christians around the world priests, religious and lay people - have lent and continue to lend their hands, eyes and hearts to Christ, true physician of bodies and souls! Let us pray for all sick people, especially those who are most seriously ill, who can in no way provide for themselves but depend entirely on the care of others. May each one of them experience, in the solicitude of those who are beside them, the power and love of God and the richness of his saving grace. Mary, health of the sick, pray for us! 

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 February 2009]

1. "Woe to me if I did not preach the gospel" (1 Cor 9:16).

These words were written by Saint Paul the Apostle in his first letter to the Corinthians.

These words echo strongly in different epochs, among different generations of the Church.

In our times they were heard, particularly strongly, during the Synod of Bishops in 1974 on the topic of evangelisation. The theme arose from the vast substratum of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the rich soil of the Church's experience in the contemporary world. The fruit of the work of that Synod was passed on by the participating bishops to Pope Paul VI, and found its expression in the splendid apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi.

"Woe to me if I did not preach the Gospel," says Saint Paul. And he adds: 'For it is not a boast for me to preach the Gospel; it is a duty for me' (1 Cor 9:15)... I only fulfil the duties of a minister!

And so: not for boasting, but also not for reward!

Indeed, the reward is the very fact that I can preach the gospel without any reward.

And then he writes: "For although I was free from all, I made myself the servant of all" (1 Cor 9:19).

It would be difficult to find words, which could say more: to preach the Gospel is to become "a servant of all in order to gain the greatest number" (1Cor 9:19). And developing the same idea, he adds: "I have made myself weak with the weak in order to gain the weak; I have made myself all things to all men, in order to save someone at any cost. I do everything for the sake of the Gospel, to become a sharer with them" (1Cor 9:22-23).

The theme we are invited to meditate on at today's meeting is therefore evangelisation.

2. Paul VI's apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi reminds us that the first evangeliser is Christ himself.

Let us look in the light of today's liturgical pericope at what a day (and night) of Christ's evangelising activity looks like.

We find ourselves in Capernaum.

Christ leaves the synagogue and, together with James and John, goes to the house of Simon and Andrew. There he heals Simon's mother-in-law (Peter), so that she can immediately get up and serve them.

After the setting of the sun, "all the sick and the possessed are brought to Christ. The whole city was gathered before the gate" (Mk 1:32-33). Jesus does not speak, but performs the healing: "He healed many who were afflicted with various diseases and cast out many demons". At the same time, a significant remark: "he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him" (Mk 1:34).

Perhaps all this went on until late in the evening.

Early in the morning Jesus is already praying.

Simon comes with his companions, to tell him: "Everyone is looking for you" (Mk 1:37).

But Jesus replies: "Let us go elsewhere to the neighbouring villages so that I may preach there also; for this is why I have come" (Mk 1:38).

We read later: "And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons" (Mk 1:39).

3. In summary, based on that day, spent in Capernaum, it can be said that the evangelisation conducted by Christ himself consists of teaching about the kingdom of God and serving the suffering.

Jesus performed signs, and all of these formed the whole of a Sign. In this Sign, the sons and daughters of the people, who had come to know the image of the Messiah, described by the prophets and especially by Isaiah, can discover without difficulty that "the kingdom of God is at hand": he is the one who "has taken upon himself our sufferings, he has borne our sorrows" (Is 53:4).

Jesus does not only preach the Gospel as they all did after him, e.g. the wonderful Paul, whose words we meditated on just now. Jesus is the Gospel!

A great chapter in his messianic service is addressed to all categories of human suffering: spiritual and physical.

It is not without reason that we also read today a passage from the book of Job, which illustrates the dimension of human suffering: "If I lie down, I say: When shall I rise? / The shadows are lengthening, and I am weary to toss and turn until dawn" (Job 7:4).

We know that Job, passing through the abyss of suffering, has reached the hope of the Messiah.

The psalmist speaks of this Messiah in the words of today's liturgy: 'The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem, / gathers the lost of Israel, / he mends the brokenhearted / and binds up their wounds ... / The Lord upholds the humble / but he brings down to the ground the wicked" (Ps 147 [146]:2.3.6).

This is precisely the Christ.

And this is precisely the Gospel.

Paul of Tarsus, who was one of the greatest proclaimers of the Gospel and knows its history, is fully aware that he shares in it: "All things I do for the sake of the Gospel, that I may be partakers of it" (1 Cor 9:23).

[Pope John Paul II, homily 7 February 1982]

Today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 1:29-39) presents us Jesus who, after having preached in the Synagogue on the Sabbath, heals many sick people. Preaching and healing: this was Jesus’ principle activity in his public ministry. With his preaching he proclaims the Kingdom of God, and with his healing he shows that it is near, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst.

Entering the house of Simon Peter, Jesus sees that his mother-in-law is in bed with a fever; he immediately takes her by the hand, heals her, and raises her. After sunset, since the Sabbath is over the people can go out and bring the sick to Him; He heals a multitude of people afflicted with maladies of every kind: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Having come to earth to proclaim and to realize the salvation of the whole man and of all people, Jesus shows a particular predilection for those who are wounded in body and in spirit: the poor, the sinners, the possessed, the sick, the marginalized. Thus, He reveals Himself as a doctor both of souls and of bodies, the Good Samaritan of man. He is the true Saviour: Jesus saves, Jesus cures, Jesus heals.

The reality of Christ’s healing of the sick invites us to reflect on the meaning and virtue of illness. This also reminds us of the World Day of the Sick, which we shall celebrate on Wednesday, 11 February, the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. I bless the initiatives prepared for this Day, in particular the Vigil that will take place in Rome on the evening of 10 February. Let us also remember the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (Health Pastoral  Care), Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, who is very sick in Poland. A prayer for him, for his health, because it was he who organized this Day, and he accompanies us in his suffering on this Day. Let us pray for Archbishop Zimowski.

The salvific work of Christ is not exhausted with his Person and in the span of his earthly life; it continues through the Church, the sacrament of God’s love and tenderness for mankind. In sending his disciples on mission, Jesus confers a double mandate on them: to proclaim the Gospel of salvation and to heal the sick (cf. Mt 10:7-8). Faithful to this teaching, the Church has always considered caring for the sick an integral part of her mission.

“The poor and the suffering you will always have with you”, Jesus admonishes (cf. Mt 26:11), and the Church continually finds them along her path, considering those who are sick as a privileged way to encounter Christ, to welcome and serve him. To treat the sick, to welcome them, to serve them, is to serve Christ: the sick are the flesh of Christ.

This also occurs in our own time, when, notwithstanding the many scientific break-throughs, the interior and physical suffering of people raises serious questions about the meaning of illness and pain, and about the reason for death. They are existential questions, to which the pastoral action of the Church must respond with the light of faith, having before her eyes the Crucifixion, in which appears the whole of the salvific mystery of God the Father, who out of love for human beings did not spare his own Son (cf. Rm 8:32). Therefore, each one of us is called to bear the light of the Word of God and the power of grace to those who suffer, and to those who assist them — family, doctors, nurses — so that the service to the sick might always be better accomplished with more humanity, with generous dedication, with evangelical love, with tenderness. Mother Church, through our hands, caresses our suffering and treats our wounds, and does so with the tenderness of a mother.

Let us pray to Mary, Health of the Sick, that every person who is sick might experience, thanks to the care of those who are close to them, the power of God’s love and the comfort of her maternal tenderness.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 8 February 2015]