“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, if you are willing, you can make me clean — the leper approaches in a posture of desperation and petition with a request that is simultaneously a confession of faith and an uncertainty about intention. The distinction he makes — you can (power), but are you willing (intention)? — is theologically precise. He does not doubt Jesus' ability; he doubts whether Jesus will extend healing to someone in his condition. The request is for cleansing (katharizō) rather than merely healing — leprosy created ritual uncleanness that excluded from the community; what he needs is restoration to social and religious belonging, not only physical cure.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:40
After that the serpent-tongue of the devils was shut up, and the woman, who was first seduced, cured of a fever, in the third place, the man, who listened to the evil counsels of the woman, is cleansed from his leprosy, that the order of restoration in the Lord might be the same as was the order of the fall in our first parents.
Mark puts together circumstances, from which one may infer that he is the same as that one whom Matthew relates to have been cleansed, when the Lord came down from the mount, after the sermon. [Matt 8:2]
For he said not, If thou wilt, pray unto God, but, 'If Thou wilt,' as thinking Him very God.
Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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