by Joe Fitzpatrick

As autumn approaches, parishes prepare programmes for adults interested in becoming Catholics. Regular RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) sessions are held between now and Easter.  One of the key questions they will consider is: who was Jesus?

Historical context

To understand Jesus and what he was about we have to understand certain features of Jewish society and religion at his time.  It was not a society with an NHS or a benefits system. It was at a much earlier stage of development than that. Indeed, we might see Jesus as the person whose example and teaching helped to mould societies in which benefit systems and health services could come about.

Jesus went about healing – the crippled, the blind, the seriously ill, the mentally confused. He was a man who made people whole again. That included forgiving their sins, something that drew the criticism of his Pharisee critics more than his acts of physical healing (Lk 5, 21).

In particular, he reached out to those ostracised by Jewish society, those on the margins, such as the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8,1ff ),  or those with infectious diseases such as leprosy. Jesus’s consorting with lepers was an act of defiance against Jewish religious law. We read in the Book of Leviticus that lepers ought to have removed themselves from society and ought to be avoided because they were deemed ‘unclean’ (Lev 13,46).  Jesus was willing to break religiously sanctioned Jewish law that led to the exclusion of certain sections of society, to dismantle barriers that prevented or inhibited the rule of love that should govern human affairs.

Joe Fitzpatrick is an author and retired Inspector of Schools.