***
Social distance isn’t anything new.
All that’s changed is the fact that now we’re distanced from everyone. In Jesus’ time, social distance was practiced around lepers.
One of the most brutal aspects of leprosy was this sense of isolation that set in.
People were terrified of it; they didn’t know how you contracted leprosy or how it spread, only that it ravaged the body.
The easiest, most convenient answer was being a sinner.
Lepers were sinners.
***
If lepers were sinners, the logic went, then it was best to avoid them.
It was holy to disown them, to discard human beings like bags of trash tossed into a dumpster.
But in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns this logic upside down, right side up.
***
He not only speaks to this man with leprosy, he also reaches out and touches him. Jesus heals him.
In doing so, he not only restores this man’s physical body, which had become terribly deformed; Jesus also shatters the boundaries of social isolation that previously held him captive.
***
This is the will of God, to shatter the isolation that holds so many captive.
During this Coronavirus pandemic, for example, we’ve all felt the weight of social isolation. (This doesn’t mean we that we should break the CDC guidelines and gather in large groups! Social distancing remains essential).
But think of how many feel alone.
Depression and anxiety affect too many in our society, from teenagers to grandparents.
Think of one person who may feel alone.
Like Jesus, how can we shatter their isolation?
***
Accompany them. Be a shoulder to cry on. Say a prayer. Speak a word of encouragement. Reach out however you can to assure them that are known – and loved.
