SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE?
“ ‘Not a word to anyone, now,’ He said. ‘Go off and present yourself to the priest.’ ” —Mark 1:44 The leper in today’s Gospel wanted social acceptance. Jesus offered this social acceptance by commanding him to show himself to the priests (Mk 1:44). Thus healed by Jesus and pronounced clean by the priests, the leper could fully and officially integrate himself back into Jewish society. Yet he apparently wanted to establish his own social acceptance, and so he disobeyed Jesus’ command by publicizing “the whole matter” and “making the story public” (Mk 1:45). Jesus offered a superior social acceptance...