By Water & Blood

Homily 8.10: Baldness and the law of the leper

The sixth and last kind of leprosy is set down, which arises on baldness at the back or front of the head; these things, as far as they are in themselves, are clean. For so the law too said: “If anyone's hair falls from his head, he is bald, he is clean. But if it falls from his forehead, he is bald in front, and he is clean.” And these things are fittingly referred to the soul, so that when it casts off and lays aside what is dead by its nature, it is said to be clean. But if after this the things that had previously been purified seem to sprout again more filthily and lower than the dignity of purity requires, they will render the soul unclean and leprous. And this now applies generally to every leper in whom there is the contagion of leprosy and it appears lower than the rest of the skin; for every vice of the soul is lower than its other virtues. The law, which is spiritual, decrees certain other things. “Let his garments,” it says, “be unsewn, and his head uncovered, and his mouth covered.” By this it signifies that one who is leprous in soul, that is, who is pierced through with sins, ought not to sew coverings for himself and cover the shameful things of sin. For just as one whose garments are unsewn shows the shame of his body naked and uncovered, so one who is hemmed in by any sins ought not to cover his evils and crimes with any patches of words or veils of excuses, lest he become a whitewashed tomb, which outwardly appears beautiful to men, but inside is full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The divine law, then, wishes the sinner not only not to sew his garments, but also not to cover his head: so that if there is any offence of the head, that is, if anything has been committed against God, if there has been sin in the faith, not even these things should be kept covered, but be made public to all, so that by the intercession and correction of all he may be amended and merit pardon.

Yet this leper is commanded to cover only his mouth. What is this, that he is commanded to have all the parts of his body bare, and to cover only his mouth? Is it not plain and open that for him who is in the leprosy of sin speech is shut, the mouth is shut, so that confidence of speech and the authority to teach are excluded? For to the sinner God said: “Why do you recount my righteous deeds and take up my covenant in your mouth?” Let the sinner, then, keep his mouth shut, because he who has not taught himself cannot teach another; therefore he is commanded to cover his mouth, who by doing evil has lost the freedom to speak. “He shall be unclean,” it says, “and shall sit apart outside; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” It is clear that everyone unclean is cast out of the assembly of the good and separated from the camp of the saints; and therefore he says, “his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” But if perhaps he has been cleansed, he does not come to the priest of his own accord, by himself; but he is brought, it says, by another, and does not enter the camp. For it was not fitting that on the day he was being cleansed he should enter the camp before what was appropriate had been done for him. For this reason, it says, the priest will go out to him outside the camp. For to him who cannot yet enter the camp, he always goes out who can go out of the camp, who says: “I came out from God and have come into this world.” The priest, then, goes out to him and considers whether he has now recovered health, whether he has been purged of the contagion of leprosy. And when the priest has seen him, he commands that two living birds be taken for the one who is being cleansed, and cedar wood, and twisted scarlet, and hyssop. These two birds too seem to me to have some likeness to the two goats, of which one is offered to the Lord and the other sent out into the desert; for so here too, of the two birds one is sacrificed and the other released into the open field.

Here too, then, he who is purged of leprosy gives some part to be cast out into the desert, while the other part is offered to the Lord for him. Yet he who is being purged of leprosy and offers the birds does not yet offer at the altar even that one which is offered to the Lord for him, as he would turtledoves or doves. For on that same day the one who is being purged of leprosy is not yet made worthy of the divine altar. For this reason the lawgiver commands that on the same day on which he is purged two birds be taken for his purification. I think that here too there is hidden the meaning of that hen through which the purification of the sinner is brought about, of which it is written: “How often I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!” Yet the one who is being purified needs to be purified by the cedar wood. For it is impossible that the leprosy of sin be purged without the wood of the cross. Let the wood also be applied, on which the Saviour, as the apostle Paul said, stripped the principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the wood. Twisted scarlet is joined too for the cleansing of this leprosy, and hyssop is added. The twisted scarlet holds the figure of the sacred blood which came forth from his side through the wound of the lance. And hyssop: physicians say that this kind of herb has the nature of rinsing and purging any filth from the corruption of harmful humour that has settled in men's chests. Hence, necessarily, in the purging of sins the figure of this kind of plant has been taken up. And as for scarlet, we find it recorded in the divine volumes that it has often been taken as an aid to salvation, as in the childbirth of Tamar, when one, it says, first put out his hand. “And the midwife, taking scarlet, tied it on his hand, saying: This one will come out first.” And Rahab the harlot too, when she had received the spies and was receiving the pact of salvation, they said to her: “Put as a sign a scarlet cord, and you shall tie it in this window through which you let us down.” Observe also, however, that the priest himself is not said to sacrifice the bird; for the one who was a leper is not yet worthy that the priest himself should sacrifice for him.

For this reason too the bird's blood is not offered at the altar, but it says that the bird will be killed in an earthen vessel, in which living water has been put, so that water too may be taken for the purification, and the fullness of the mystery may be fulfilled in water and blood, which is said to have come out of the Saviour's side; and also what John sets down in his Epistle, saying that purification is made in water and blood and spirit. Hence here too I see all these things fulfilled. For the spirit is that bird which is killed, and the living water which is in the vessel, and the blood which is poured over it; not that we think the grace of baptism is to be repeated through these things, but that every purification of sins, even this which is sought through penance, needs the help of him from whose side water and blood came forth. See, then, how both the living bird, and the cedar wood, and the twisted scarlet, and the hyssop are dipped in the blood of the bird and in the living water, so that, sprinkled from this and purified by the water and blood in which that bird too was dipped which is sent out into the field, and sprinkled seven times before the Lord, the one who is being purified may be made clean from all the uncleanness with which he had been possessed by the contagion of leprosy.