We often hear abstract statements about God-- that God is love, which presents itself to us as mercy; that God knows our sinfullness, but sent His Son to save us anyway; that God realizes our weakness, etc. Obviously the crucifixion is an example of the length to which God will go to help us-- to save us for eternity, in fact. The enormity of that action by the Divine causes us to have a hard time truly appreciating its meaning. Today's Gospel (Mk 1: 40-45) gives us a concrete, more-approachable example of the fact that Jesus has such great love for us that He will risk real inconvenience to His mission out of pity for one person. In this reading, Jesus is confronted by a leper, who asks to be healed. There can be no doubt that jesus knows what will happen if He grants the leper's request-- news of the healing will circulate and Jesus will be swamped with requests for healing to such an extent that He can no longer move around freely. Jesus sees this coming-- He knows human nature well, after all, and the healed leper is going to be asked what happened and will have to attribute the healing to Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus "sternly" orders the leper to tell no one, but only to show himself to the priest and give the offering Moses prescribed. Certainly Jesus hopes that His instructions will be followed, and we can assume the leper agreed to Jesus' commands, but the leper's ability to follow through on the promise disappears immediately and he publicizes "the whole matter." Jesus sees this coming. Why doesn't He just politely decline to heal the man, explaining that He has a more-important mission of preaching? Why voluntarily do something that will just cause problems? Of course, the answer is that Jesus was "moved with pity." His pity overcomes His logic and common-sense and self-interest. He probably really wants to believe that the leper will do what Jesus tells him, and that He can have the best of both worlds-- a quiet healing which doesn't make it "impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly." Of course, it doesn't work that way, and Jesus suffers the consequences without, apparently, any negative impact on the leper. Jesus heals; the leper disobeys; Jesus can't enter towns; nothing bad happens to the leper. That's the practical cost of Jesus' pity, but that's how Jesus rolls. That's why we say God is love, which shows itself to us as mercy.