***
Gospel: Luke 5: 12-16
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was;
and when he saw Jesus,
he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
And the leprosy left him immediately.
Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but
“Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing
what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
The report about him spread all the more,
and great crowds assembled to listen to him
and to be cured of their ailments,
but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
Mother Teresa was once walking along the streets of Calcutta, when suddenly she passed by a homeless man dying on the street.
The rags of his clothing wreaked of soured sweat. Maggots were nibbling at the bones of his tired body. The sight of it all left her feeling nauseous.
For a moment, she turned away from him as so many others had, not only in the hour of his death, but also seemingly throughout his life.
Then a moment of grace kissed her soul. “That’s Christ in distressing disguise,” Mother Teresa reminded herself.
So, she returned and knelt by the dying man’s side. He was so starved, that she – a woman not even five feet tall – was able to pick him up and carry him to her nearby home for the dying.
Upon arriving, the man looked up into her eyes and breathed his last.
***
In today’s Gospel, we find a leper abandoned by society, much like the man starving on that street in Calcutta. He was – even by religious standards! – untouchable.
But Christ, moved with pity, stretched out his hand, touched him, and healed him. “I do will it,” he says. “Be made clean.”
It’s what Jesus does for all of us.
When we despise ourselves, or when our hearts are filled with bitter shame, the healing hand of the Lord remains outstretched. Never will a penitent person approach Jesus without hearing the words, “I absolve you.”
Even more, “I love you.”
This is the same generous spirit the Lord is trying to impart in us – as Mother Teresa often experienced.
***
Sometimes we need to be reminded of our dignity as God’s creation.
Other times, we need to remind others – hug them, bathe their wounds, treat them with respect, love, patience, and forgive them as Christ has loved us.
***
***
Image credits: (1) I Vote Catholic (2) Koinoinia Art (3) TheCollector