LORD, IF YOU WISH, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN

Mat 8:1-4

Jesus has finished his Sermon on the Mountain; it is now time to come down. He had just presented summary of His teaching with the new law of love at its center. He did not want to stay on the mountain but went down to face the reality of life. He met a leper, an outcast, a person whom the society thought to be punished by God for horrible sins. Jesus touched him and healed him.

Remember that the traditional Jewish law forbids touching lepers (Lev. 5:3) and separates them from regular society. The leper shall keep his body covered and shall walk crying, ‘Unclean, unclean’. The leper was considered as a kind of dead man walking. At that time no leper would ever have approached people. I today’s gospel he approached Jesus for help: “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean”. And Jesus cures him by touching him. Touching a leper makes you unclean; that was the law in Jesus’ time. But this touch of Jesus heals the leper form his disease, his isolation, his loneliness, his despair and his belief that he was cursed by God. He is made clean.

Sin, which is the spiritual disease of the soul, is sometimes compared to leprosy. And so spiritually, we may be lepers and need to be healed by Christ. Our spiritual leprosy is only healed when Jesus touches us. St. Irenaeus once said: “The glory of God is man fully alive” and Jesus is the one who came to give us life to the full. We are all sinners and have experienced the healing touch of Christ when we approach Him in different Sacraments. The question for us today is: Are we also ready to be His hands and touch the “lepers” in our society?  Jesus sends us to touch the leprosy of those suffering and isolated in our society.

It is so easy to remain on the “mountain,” to pray in church or spend some time in a charismatic prayer group. It is so easy to be holy there. But holiness is not reached in churches smelling of incense but rather where the “lepers” are waiting for our loving touch. We have to become the hands of Christ reaching out in compassion and love to those who need it most in our society. Let us come down from our mountains, Let us touch the needy of our society.