Unclean!

    Let me share a few thoughts that I shared in my homily yesterday.

     It is never fun to preach about leprosy, but that is what we were faced with yesterday in the Scriptures.  Leprosy was a terrible, dreaded disease that created fear within society and within those faced to confront the ones afflicted.  Leprosy eats away at the body.  It disfigures and maims before bringing on death.  It is contagious and ugly.  Those who contracted leprosy were considered one of the living dead.  They were cut off from the living, denied the comfort of home, the love of family, friends and society, basic human necessities, and even the dignity and respect of a human being.  They were non-entities.  We hear of it in Leviticus, we see it in the ministry of Jesus in Mark, we know of it in the story of "Ben Hur" (remember the movie), of Saint Francis in his encounter in the 1200's, in the inspiration of Father Damien and Mother Mary Ann Cope in Molokai in the 1800's.

     Jesus does will that the man with leprosy be healed ... but not at a distance.  He does the unbelievable - he touches him with compassion and love.  Saint Francis, after running away from the leper, encounters him again, face to face, and see, not the disfigured source of contagion, but Christ - and embraces him with compassion and love.  Father Damien and Joseph Dutton and Mother Mary Ann went where no one would go and dealt with the leper colony's abandonment with compassion and love.  Even in our own time we have the example of Mother Theresa of Calcutta and her followers who bring love and compassion to the dregs of society.  There is so much to be learned here.

     But the leprosy of our time, of all times, is that of sin.  We do not have to go far to see it, to experience it, to deal with it.  It cuts us off from the source of life, from the land of the living.  Christ, through the ministry of the Church, brings to these "living dead" healing and forgiveness with compassion and love.  Again, there is SO MUCH HERE to be learned ... and experienced ... as we come in our sinfulness to be healed and restored to life.  Lent is approaching, and it a wonderful time to say to the Lord "If you wish, you can make me whole" and then hear him say "I do will it, be made clean!"