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Law Enforcement

There are many levels of interpretation for today’s readings. The first reading is from Leviticus, chapter 13 verses 1 and 2, then 45-46. The Book of Leviticus is part of the first 5 books of what used to be called the “Old Testament” (as opposed to the New Covenant created by Jesus at the last Supper). Those first five books were cobbled together in Babylon by all the different leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel, thrown together and forced to work together. Leviticus is a collection of laws. Finding some sort of order in interpreting them has been the work of priests and lawyers for centuries, even millennia. Jesus was a Jew. It is apparent from many Gospel stories that He was considered an expert and was questioned about many aspects of the Judaic laws. He was even asked how to prioritize them. Is there a key for interpreting all these thousands of laws? In fact, He said yes, there is a key. Love God; love your neighbor. Both are pretty much the same.

Back to the particular law in today’s readings. Anyone who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of their head be disheveled and shall cover their upper lip and cry out “Unclean, Unclean.” That person shall remain unclean as long as the disease persists, and being unclean such a one shall live alone with their dwelling outside the camp.

As I mentioned there are many levels of interpretation. Is this a medical issue? What is the historical setting? (3 millennia ago, at least). When is quarantine an appropriate solution to a medical problem? (when the cause is unknown). What changes in medical knowledge have happened in 3 millennia? (Back one century and even one decade ago during Covid 19, quarantine was a good solution for protecting society in general from contagious disease.)

Finding a cause and cure is a better one.

There was a very dangerous side effect to the practice of quarantine. It introduced using isolation as a solution to other social problems: expulsion, excommunication, prison, etc. Even worse, when it came to medical problems, sometimes the cause was assumed to be the morals of the victim. This view in turn made freedom from illness, or other misfortunes, like poverty or disfigurement or injury, to be signs of God’s disfavour.

Rules are a very necessary and good part of human life. But rules in Christianity need to be constantly reassessed in the light of the key given to us by Jesus. It is a pitfall of many religious people to try to prove one’s own goodness simply by following rules “religiously”.

~Agnes Beirne