Leprosy is a disease that makes a person’s outward appearance repugnant. In ancient times, leprosy was a dreaded disease. Its appearance was feared, but contagion was more feared. The leper was expelled from society. Touching a leper, one risked the danger of becoming contaminated and leprous oneself. Hence no one dared to approach him or help him. Since a leper could contaminate others, anyone who approached a leper would also be marginalized.
Today we know how to cure leprosy. But there are other “leprosies”, other social realities in front of which we feel bad and prefer to look elsewhere. The society expels persons who suffer from such leprosy and leave them in the gutter. Today’s ‘lepers’ are the immigrants, the ones who served a jail-term, the poor. Lepers are all those who are different from us because of their race, culture, religion, gender or language. We set boundaries and limits for them that must not be crossed. Their presence near us makes us feel bad (impure). That is why we keep them away and apart.
Jesus breaks those artificial barriers. He cures the leper. Thus, he demonstrates that physical illness is not a source of impurity. Jesus heals the untouchability by touching him. This is a key moment because Jesus, by touching the leper, officially becomes unclean. He makes himself an outcast. This is how God heals and saves us. He becomes one with us. He touches us and, by touching us, he breaks down the barriers that society has established between the good and the bad, the pure and the impure, the just and the unjust. God brings us together and unites us, does not divide us; he calls us all together to form the one family of God.
It must be understood that the leper did not obey Jesus and tell what happened to everyone he met and that people sought Jesus after knowing what happened. Today we come to Jesus so that he can heal our leprosy. And of course, he does. But at the same time, he reminds us that, there is no reason to marginalise others, that there are no lost cases, that for God we all have a future. And that, with the second reading, we must do everything for the glory of God, which is none other than the good of the human person. To do this, the best we can do is, like Paul, follow Christ’s example and reach out to all the lepers in our world to heal them and invite them to become part of the human family. That and nothing else is to be in Jesus the Son of God.
For your reflection
What are the kinds of leprosy that we see in others that make us afraid and that make us move away from them? What can we do, so that they don’t feel marginalised? What can we do to make them feel like members of the family of God?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by Father Alberto Rossa CMF
