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The Approaching Leper


The Approaching Leper











February 11, 2018
Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy ( Mk 1: 40 – 45)

Today’s Gospel is about this leper who begs Jesus: “ If you wish, you can make me clean.” I have always been touched by this passage in quite an extraordinary way.  The leper was begging and not demanding Jesus to cure him. His request to be made clean was framed conditionally: “If you wish…” This somehow tells us that this leper was hoping to be cured but at the same time, was also open to the possibility of remaining a leper.  This meant that he was somehow resigned to remain a leper and be left as one. This resignation to live a life of complete seclusion due to leprosy somehow tells us that this man has become long used to this miserable life. Imagine a life where everyone practically avoids you. Or imagine a life where you are constantly being chased away whenever you come close to people!  It is this getting used to such a life of misery that kills people. When one becomes used to a life of rejection or being unwanted, one begins to believe that life is like that and there is absolutely nothing else one could do about it. Unfortunately, such trauma can leave deep and lasting scars that are difficult to overcome. I guess, our leper was already in this state of mind.
But the more interesting thing to know is what gave this leper hope? What made him hope in Jesus? Maybe the gospel of Mark gives us some hint of this when he writes: “ A leper came to Jesus.. “ (Mk 1:40). The fact that the leper was able to approach Jesus was an unusual scenario in itself. Lepers do not approach people. People avoid them. But Jesus didn’t avoid this leper. And maybe it was perhaps Jesus’ approachability that somehow gave this leper some reason to hope.
I see this leper as someone who represents everything in us that is utterly unwanted and unloved; everything in us that is utterly despised and rejected. Jesus takes away all that. He takes away all that is not beautiful in us and creates in us something beautiful so that we can once more walk back to life unashamed and unafraid. We simply have to beg the Lord like this leper,  to heal the rejections and the unwantedness that we feel inside of us so that we can go out and proclaim and spread his word.  I truly believe that only in being healed by Jesus can we become real witnesses to his compassion. Jesus tells us that we need not live a life of rejection and unwantedness, just like this leper. We need not get used to living our lives believing that we are unloved, unwanted and rejected. We need only to beg Jesus, if he wanted to, to heal us so we can live our lives more fully once again. Amen.

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