Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

These first days of Jesus’ ministry present him preaching, teaching, and healing to bring people to know that God is near. His message and his deeds bring  people back to full life in the community. By casting out demons and curing the  sick he restores to full humanity those suffering from possession and illness.  Today we find Jesus confronting a condition that must have been even more  excruciating—leprosy. 

To be a leper was to be cut off from others in all ways. You were cast out of the  community, isolated, doomed to live in deserted places, no longer part of the  human family, unable to participate in any social events, and considered unfit  to worship God. It was assumed that if you had leprosy, you had sinned in some  way. Your life was summed up in the words the Law of Moses told you to cry out  whenever anyone came near, “Unclean, unclean!” 

For Jesus to touch a leper meant that in the eyes of others he also became  unclean and unfit to associate and worship with others. Even so, when a leper  asked for healing, Jesus was unequivocal in his reply: “I do will it. Be made clean.”  It is easy to hear in his response the authority of the Son of God, set on giving  glory to his Father. Yet Jesus, ever respectful of the law, sent the man to the priest,  as commanded in the book of Leviticus. In Jesus, pity took precedence over the  law, but did not abolish it.

Consider/Discuss

  • Have you ever been or seen anyone cut off from a family, a group, or  even the community? 
  • When St Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” how does  that speak to your life in terms of Jesus’ healing the leper in the  Gospel? 

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you came to bring us into deeper communion with the Father and one  another. Give us the courage to reach out, as you did, to those in need of our  compassion and help. Let us not be afraid of the opinions of others when we see  that good can be done. Amen.

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