Healing From Leprosy And Sin

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Course 2022

What was the worst part of leprosy in the days of Christ and even millennia before and after? I believe that the skin condition and other physical ailments were horrible experiences, as well as knowing there was no human cure. But the worst part seems to be the separation of those afflicted from society. We see that especially in the story of the nine Jewish and one Samaritan lepers in St. Luke’s story. Jesus and His disciples were walking in that no-man’s land between the Galileans and the Samaritans, who hated and feared each other. Here come the lepers, hated and feared by both groups. They had to avoid all other humans, and wear ratty garments, and constantly proclaim “unclean” to anyone who approached them. Jesus, of course, came to bring all human beings together for right worship and right conduct. He purposed to reverse the scattering that is caused by the devil’s envy and human egotism. If He had been only a good man, as many people believe, that would have been impossible. But as the Word of God made man, He could not only teach and heal, but also respond to the egoism and cruelty of human leaders by dying at their hands and rising from the dead and giving us the faith and sacraments that are able to bring us to Himself, and live in Him, and come together in one community of faith.

So the leprosy we hear about in today’s readings is a vivid symbol of the mortal sin that drives us apart. Only the healing Word of God can be a full and permanent remedy for that kind of affliction, a disease that every one of us have experienced. Just as leprosy could kill in the time of Christ, so sin kills the life of the soul in every age of man. We see in the Gospel that the lepers lift up their voices at a distance and cry together, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Their cry, in the original Greek, is “eleeo” a word that sounds pathetic all by itself. And Jesus did have mercy on them and instructed them to perform the ritual required of anyone healed of leprosy–to go and show themselves to the priests in the Temple.

Let’s go back for a moment and look at the story of Elisha and Naaman taken from the Books of Kings in the OT. We hear the story from the beginning during the Lenten season, as catechumens are preparing for their own reception into the Church through the baptismal profession of faith and forgiveness of their sins. But here we have the sharp end of the story. Naaman, who is a big shot back in Syria, and has come to Elisha and been humiliated by going to the muddy Jordan River to bathe, not just once but seven times, finds himself healed. Rejoicing, he returns to the prophet and professes his faith in the only God in all the earth. Elisha refuses a thanksgiving gift, but Naaman wants to bring his newfound faith back to Syria, by erecting an altar there on good soil from Israel. So his experience with the Lord, and the prophet of the Lord, has made him a kind of evangelist for the truth, that our God is a saving, healing deity.

What can we take away from these wonderful stories. We are all sinners, all in need of forgiveness and healing from the true God. Moreover, in His mercy He forgives us when we ask, and gives us the grace of healing so that we will have the strength to resist sin forthwith. So we first of all give thanks for our healing and the hope of redemption and resurrection after we die. But we also look for opportunities to give that good news–our personal testimony–to others as those opportunities present themselves. And we determine, with the help of God’s grace, to remain faithful to the one who is always faithful, Jesus Christ, our Lord.