Matthew 20: 17-28 The Request of Salome

All three readings, the first reading, the Psalm, and the Gospel share being plotted against, and trapped.  The Psalm it the universal lament of mankind that occasionally feels the world is against us.  We are not to despair.  The Pslam encourages us,

"You will free me from the snare they set for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God."

Jesus himself is being plotted against.  In the Gospel he tells the Apostles that he will be handed over and condemned to death. 

In the reading too we hear Mary Salome, a disciple of Jesus and mother of James and John, begging that Jesus let her sons sit at his left and right when Jesus came into his kingdom.  She does not yet fully understand what she is asking.  Jesus points that out to her.  Then Jesus asks the Apostles if they are able to drink from the chalice from which he is to drink.  This is an intimate ancient gesture that binds people.  Jesus tells them that they will also drink from the same cup.  Jesus reminds them that humility is to be practiced, that they ought not to lord over others: that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and that it is not for him to decide who is placed at his right and at his left in the Heavenly Kingdom.  That is the Father's role. 

And what of Mary called Salome?  She will come to understand as Christ is fully revealed to her as she stands with the Blessed Mother at the Crucifixion and is one of the women present at the tomb at the Resurrection. 

Mark 1:40-45 Cleansing of the Leper

In today’s Gospel reading we hear of a leper being healed by Jesus.  There were so many rabbis at that time in Israel.  It they couldn’t cure this man, why could Jesus, he was just another rabbi, right?  Even though he has begun his ministry at Cana, he is still unknown to his disciples.  This man who has leprosy approaches Jesus and says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  These words are filled with faith.  They are like the faith filled words that we use during mass, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, say the word and I shall be healed.” 

Jesus heals the leper.  He frees him from the hell in which he has been living.  He frees him from both the physical marks of leprosy that plague his body, but he also heals the man’s spirit.  We can imagine this man filled with abundant joy and it is contagious as he goes to the priests.  He is a witness to the power of Christ.  God himself has touched him, forgiven him, and restored life to him by raising him from the death of sin.  Jesus in a sense is teaching us a lesson about heaven and hell, about mercy, about how to be happy.  We are to come to the Lord and in him with the light of faith we will find happiness.  How did Jesus do this?

St. Hilary of Poitiers reminds us, “For He (Jesus) took upon Him the flesh in which we have sinned that by wearing our flesh He might forgive sins; a flesh which He shares with us by wearing it, not by sinning in it. He blotted out through death the sentence of death, that by a new creation of our race in Himself He might sweep away the penalty appointed by the former Law. He let them nail Him to the cross that He might nail to the curse of the cross and abolish all the curses to which the world is condemned.”