Deacon Rick Lapierre
Leprosy was a feared disease in Jesus' time. People who had sores were banished to live outside the cities in caves or secluded places by themselves until the disease took their lives. They were forbidden to associate with anyone, other than their fellow sufferers, and if they did venture out of their quarantine, they had to cover their disfigured faces and ring a bell to warn others to stay away. This cruel solution was thought necessary to prevent the spread of the disease, which is highly contagious.
The Jewish laws had a practical effect in addition to the religious one, to prevent the spread of disease. As part of their law and tradition, it was unheard of to touch someone with whom you were not intimately related. You hugged the members of your immediate family, but that was it. Shaking hands as we do in our culture, or placing your arm around someone's shoulders was just not done, even if the person was healthy.
Imagine the shock of the disciples, who must have bolted when the leper walked up to Jesus and asked to be healed. Now Jesus could have just said, "OK, you're healed," and that would have been it. But Jesus did an incredibly powerful thing; he reached out and touched the leper. He violated the laws of His own people to show all what God thought of people others thought of as unclean.
There is a powerful example here in this story of Jesus. We are the followers of Jesus, the Mystical Body of Christ. If the Master reached his hand out to touch the repulsive beings of His time, why are we not doing the same in our time? We talk about the poor and marginalized, and it brings to mind the homeless person living on the streets in Providence, the children picking garbage dumps in Central America, or AIDS patients living in New York. There is no question that these are the lepers of our century, but what about the grouchy old person on the next street who doesn't have anybody to say a kind word to him or her. What about the people who think differently about political affairs than we do? Do we ignore them or treat them with disrespect? How about people who practice a different religion than we do? How do we respond to them?
How about members of our own family who slight us, who have said things to us that hurt us? Do we just fail to forgive, because to do so would open our hearts to being hurt again?
The story of Jesus healing the leper forces me to answer the question, who are the lepers in my life? You see, when I hear the gospel, I can't just take it literally. That's too easy. I personally do not know anyone with leprosy, so the temptation for me is to hear this gospel reading and zone out.
But there are two very important points that I have to consider. The first is, what if I'm the one with leprosy? What if it was I that had to leave all my family and friends and face disease and death alone? The second point is very much like that. There are lepers among us. You and I know people right here in Mapleville with leprosy. No, not the actual Hanson's disease, but they are afflicted with circumstances that make us consider them unclean. They are the poor in spirit, the prisoners of substance abuse, those who mourn, or are hungry for food or companionship.
In this time of preparation for war with Iraq, for example, do we recognize the children of God among us who risk the stigma of leprosy to work for peace, even though it may be unpopular?
Jesus walked among the poorest and most destitute humans of his time, and He answered their prayers, their requests for healing and brought them to the knowledge of a God who loved them, even though their human situation gave them no hope. "He stretched out His hand, touched him and said to him, 'I do will it, be made clean.'"
Jesus, make me clean. Heal me of all that is not of God. Clean me, Jesus, so that I in turn can do as you do. Clean me, Jesus, so that I can be your voice, your hands, your healing touch to all those who seem unclean to me, but are very much the children of your Father and loved by Him and you as much as I am.
And in my cleanliness Jesus, let me act more and more like you, who above all things showed us the definition of the word love.
