The Modern Lepers

Squemish? Scroll down now. Today's Gospel reading has really struck me...

Gospel, Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, 'If you want to, you can heal me.' Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, 'Of course I want to!' he said, 'be cured.' And at once the leprosy left him and he was cured. And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him, 'Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them.' The man went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him.

Yesterday, miraculously, I was able to get up in time to go to the morning Mass at HMP Lewes prison. It is something I have been meaning to do for a long time, but given that a friend is now there, he has given me a personal reason for doing so. The friend in concern is in prison, as I said, for breaking his Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO), because he was guilty of the heinous crimes of begging and street drinking and was discovered to have broken his ban from the centre of Brighton.

He is one of a seemingly growing number of people who in the light of the Gospel are the new 'lepers' of the modern age. I don't know maybe we should start a band or something...The thing I found striking about the Mass at prison was the sense of brotherhood that we share under the loving gaze of our Heavenly Father. We are all, regardless of our sins or crimes, Brothers in Christ, adopted Sons of God, who loves us regardless of our sins. Knowing this, or at least believing this ardently fills us Christians with joy, another joy that the World cannot give...not perhaps can understand.

As I'm sure you are aware, leprosy, so attached to sin and shame in the Old Testament, was for the lepers of Our Lord's time, not just a disfigurement and disease of the body, but something that excluded the sufferer from the rest of society. The Gospel reading is dramatic for a few reasons. Many things are striking about today's Gospel reading!

Firstly, it is contrasted with the law of Moses which was read in the first reading of the day, by which the leper would have to hide his top lip with his hand and warn others of his approaching by shouting, 'Unclean, unclean.' Christ Our Lord does not ignore the Law of Moses but tells the leper who has been healed by the power of God's compassionate love to present himself to a rabbi to evidence his healing, so that he may be admitted back into society...surely the re-admittance of the man back into society was what gave the healed man and Our Lord Jesus Christ more joy than ever!

Secondly, Our Blessed Lord 'touches' the leper, who is deemed by his society as 'untouchable', someone to be shunned lest you would catch his sickness and disease, someone discarded by society and excluded. It is likely that nobody had touched him in his life since he contracted leprosy, but who is the one person willing to touch him? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who motivated by His compassion in His Sacred Heart, sees not only the injustice of society at large which has left the poor man bereft of friendship and love, but also the person who is stood before Him, unloved by men, asking Him to heal him and to love him!

Thirdly, Our Blessed Lord, because He had healed the leper and the healed man could not contain his joy at meeting Our Lord, took upon Himself the state of the leper and was no long able to go into the town, but had to remain outside, in 'deserted places' where people could come to Him...and of course, they did!

Anyway, I am digressing a little. The Gospel reading today highlights Jesus's love for the poor, the outcast and the excluded. The reason that it was so striking to me was because I am increasinly becoming more aware of people in Brighton who could be described as the 'modern lepers'. The friend in jail, who is not allowed in the town centre but has to remain outside on the edges of Brighton in 'deserted places' is one example.

There are many drug addicts and alcoholics in Brighton who are despised by society and, because the traces of addiction are marked on their faces and in their mannerisms, they are not allowed to go into pubs, bars or shops sometimes because the man on the door doesn't like the look of them. I've seen their rejection at first hand and it is not something you expect from 'friendly Brighton'.

There are HIV positive people who are shunned and excluded even from the gay scene in which they once were welcome, because they, suddenly, are 'unclean'. Some are hounded once they are found out and chased away from their communities.

There are the homeless people who because they look untidy and don't scrub up as well as the 'respectable' people of society are excluded from pubs, shops and restaurants. There are some provisions and services for them, but who ever invites them to dinner parties, weddings, or occasions of joy? Do people who are rejected by society even get invited to Church or feel welcome there?

Yes, it is true, there are plenty of 'modern lepers' today who are excluded from society and are unloved. It is up to us, the Church militant, to reach out to them and show them love because Jesus loves them and wants them to be loved! If we do reach out to the outcasts in society, we can be sure of one thing...The joy of the Kingdom of God will fill our hearts and we will have a joy that no man can take away from us! No man, or indeed, woman.

Finally, it is true to say that we empathise more deeply the plight of the outcast and shunned when we realise our own need to say to the Lord, like the leper in the Gospel, "If you want to You can heal me." For sin removes us, excludes us from God, but through prayer and through the Sacraments of Grace, Confession and the Holy Eucharist we can be told time and time again, by Christ, present in the Sacraments, "Of course I want to! Be healed." For a profound reflection of this read Daughter of the King's post today by clicking here.

Also, click here for Whispers in the Loggia, who has a good piece on the cause for the canonisation of Blessed Damien de Veuster (1840-1889), the Belgian missionary to the Hawaiian leper-colony of Molokai, who has been adopted as an unofficial patron of HIV/AIDS sufferers.