The healing of the leper (Notes)

Saint Mark - Chapter 1

Healing the lepers at Capernaum. J-J Tissot

[40] Et venit ad eum leprosus deprecans eum : et genu flexo dixit ei : Si vis, potes me mundare.
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down said to him: If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

[41] Jesus autem misertus ejus, extendit manum suam : et tangens eum, ait illi : Volo : mundare.
And Jesus having compassion on him, stretched forth his hand; and touching him, saith to him: I will. Be thou made clean.

[42] Et cum dixisset, statim discessit ab eo lepra, et mundatus est.
And when he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean.

[43] Et comminatus est ei, statimque ejecit illum,
And he strictly charged him, and forthwith sent him away.

And He strictly charged him. The Gr. is, And having threatened him, he straightway sent him out. He severely commanded him with threats to conceal the miracle of healing which He had just wrought; and therefore He dismissed him, and sent him away from Him, that it might not be known that He had cured him of his leprosy; and that this might afford us an example of avoiding the applause of men.

[44] et dicit ei : Vide nemini dixeris : sed vade, ostende te principi sacerdotum, et offer pro emundatione tua, quae praecepit Moyses in testimonium illis.
And he saith to him: See thou tell no one; but go, shew thyself to the high priest, and offer for thy cleansing the things that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.

Text from The Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. J-J Tissot

Show thyself to the high priest (Vulg.). Gr. to the priest. For not only the High Priest, but any priest might judge concerning leprosy, whether it was healed or no, as is plain from Lev. 13:2. It is probable, however, that because the case of leprosy was so grave and difficult, the decision concerning it was, by the interpretation and decree of the pontiffs, reserved for a Chief Priest, as is here said, that is, for one of the twenty-four heads of the priests, who each in turn presided for a week over the rest of the priests, and the sacrifices, and the other offices and rites of the Temple, according to the institution of David, as appears from 1 Chron. 24:3, &c.

[45] At ille egressus coepit praedicare, et diffamare sermonem, ita ut jam non posset manifeste introire in civitatem, sed foris in desertis locis esset, et conveniebant ad eum undique.
But he being gone out, began to publish and to blaze abroad the word: so that he could not openly go into the city, but was without in desert places: and they flocked to him from all sides.

But he, being gone out, began to publish and to blaze abroad the word, i.e., the fact of the miracle of his leprosy having been healed by Christ. For he thought that this was for the glory of God and Christ, although Christ, out of humility and modesty, had enjoined silence; but he himself did not consider this command binding upon him.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam