Reflection for January 10
Bro. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, Healing Waters from the Sacred Heart
Leprosy has been called “the separating sickness.” Deeply feared from ancient times, it was erroneously thought to be highly contagious. People with it were labeled unclean, separated from their families, and relegated to the margins of society. Curable today, leprosy (Hansen’s disease) sadly still carries a stigma around the world.
The man in Luke’s Gospel was cast out of his community because of his leprosy. Community is a basic human need; we all yearn to belong. I hear this yearning in the man’s words to Jesus. He wants to be healed of his physical suffering, yes. But he also wants to be freed from the mental anguish of his isolation.
In biblical times, it was forbidden to touch someone with leprosy. Jesus touches the man with leprosy! He reaches right past the religious hygiene laws of his day, heals the man, and restores him to community. By his actions, Jesus says in effect, “You belong.”
Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, who works with former gang members re-entering society, has written about “communities of kinship.” He says the measure of our compassion lies not in our service to those on the margins but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them. He asks us to “inch our way” toward imagining a circle of compassion where nobody is standing outside that circle.
I would guess most of us have felt like an outsider at least once, maybe even like an outcast. Perhaps we can draw on this experience of otherness to connect to someone whom our society labels as unclean or a nobody. Can I say, “I am not afraid to touch you because we are alike”? Can I see us in kinship together? How can I use my God-given gifts to partner in building up God’s community of love here and now? That all may be one.
Julie Magri