6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, B

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DEAD NO MORE!

I have never really met a leper. I read about lepers in the Bible. And last Christmas season, I watched Molokai, the film about Blessed Damien de Veuster, the priest who became a leper when he served lepers.

From the gospel (Mk 1: 40-45), I think we can say that lepers are like the living dead.  The leper is physically slowly dying. Imagine your body wasting away; imagine your flesh being eaten by a vicious virus while you’re still alive. it must be very sad for the leper. Just looking at his body makes him feel hopeless. He knows he will die soon. He knows he has no way out but death.

But the leper is also dead in the eyes of society. The leper is feared because he might infect others. so the leper is thrown out of the community, away from others, so that he will not be a danger to others.  So a second death-while-still living is experienced by the leper. He is forgotten, abandoned, left behind by the people close to him.

When Jesus healed the leper, he did not only remove the sickness. He gave new life, new hope, new possibilities, new start to the leper!  He is no longer dead, because his body is cured.  He is no longer dead, because he can now rejoin his family and friends.

Even if people treat us like a leper because of our poverty, our sickness or our mistakes and sins in life, remember that Jesus is different. He comes to take away our shame about ourselves.  He comes to take away our isolation from other people. when Jesus is in our hearts, there is always joy and new life.

Be like this leper. Call on Jesus and receive the grace of life again! 

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