“But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.”
Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere — the healed man's disobedience to the silence command produces the opposite of what Jesus intended: instead of quiet restoration through the priestly channels, the news spreads widely. The consequence is ironic reversal: Jesus, who cleansed the excluded man and restored him to communal life, now must stay in the isolated places the leper previously inhabited. The man who was outside is now inside; Jesus, who brought him in, is now outside. Yet the crowds still come — the Messianic Secret cannot contain the news of the kingdom's arrival.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:45
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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