6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, B
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!
