...A leper came to Jesus and, kneeling, begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."...(Mk 1:40-45)
God is good, all the time.
Friends, I remember a family nightmare as I was growing up. One of my brothers was reacting drowsily to a medication he was on for treating malaria. Because the drowsiness precluded him from helping with the daily chores for days, we complained that he was feigning the sickness and the sleepiness. Then another brother decided to prove him wrong by trying the medicine he was on. What did he know? In less than 10 minutes after taking the medicine, he reacted terribly to the pill, his neck almost turning around. He was rushed to the hospital for assistance.
Whether to a husband, wife, children, parent, friend, or a stranger, love and compassion are needed to support our life and relationships. It must not surprise us that Jesus showed deep love and compassion to the leper. The leper had come to him alone because his condition didn't permit him to be around people openly.
We must understand God's instruction to Moses that people with leprosy avoid contact with others by staying in isolation and presenting themselves in a manner that keeps others from coming closer to them. It was not a rejection of lepers on the part of God. Instead, it was a way of ensuring that the Israelites could place their trust and faith in him as their protector. Remember, the mass of people was moving together and living in tents and needed to be protected. So, once they recovered, the priest would admit them back to the community.
Mark also tells us that after healing the leper, Jesus had to remain in isolated places because the man went out to spread the story. That was Mark's way of telling us that Jesus exchanged his place in the society with the person. And Jesus did that for all of us when he left heaven to come on earth and died on the cross to lift us to where the Father is.
Such is the way of love and compassion. They cause us to give what we care about: our life, gifts, talents, money, energy, time, wisdom to others without thinking about the cost. So, let Valentine's Day also remind us that love for a spouse or family should be rooted in the giving and receiving of love and compassion.
Christian tradition associates sin with leprosy because it separates us from God. As lepers were to go back to the priest to be reinstalled, confession with the priest helps repair the damaged relationship with God.
What brings a person to confession is the love and compassion a person has for himself or herself. If we are compassionate towards ourselves, then we seek the best; we avoid keeping sin in us, and instead, we take it to Jesus, who returns the same compassion and love. It is not fear of hell, regret, and the weight of the sin on our conscience that should take us to confession but the love and compassion towards ourselves. May this be our understanding and practice during the coming lent. Amen.