At the time of Jesus, leprosy carried a two-fold stigma. First, it was a terribly painful and debilitating disease which left the person suffering with sores and rotting flesh. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the second affliction of leprosy was that the person would be cast out of society and have to live apart as we see described in our first reading. The leper would have to yell out “unclean” if anyone came near him.
This background makes the encounter between Jesus and the leper in today’s gospel a truly astounding event. First, the leper does not stay away like he’s supposed to. He’s not afraid to run up to Jesus. More amazing, Jesus is not afraid of the leper. We can imagine everyone else backing away in shock, perhaps even fearing that they might become infected. Jesus then does the unthinkable; he touches the leper. In this case, since Jesus is God, he does not become infected with leprosy. Instead, the infected person is healed. A true miracle.
As we prepare to begin Lent, we are meant to see the disease of leprosy as an analogy for sin. Just as leprosy left a person physically ill, so sin leaves us spiritually ill. Leprosy isolated a person from the community and sin does the same to us. Notice that Jesus did not simply invite the leper back… he healed him first. This is the same path forward for us. We need to run to Jesus and kneel down in the confessional and be healed of our sin. Then Jesus will reintegrate us fully back into the community.
Sin is a serious disease. If we leave it untreated, we will not only spiritually suffer and die, but we will infect the entire community and slowly bring it down. But imagine if we were all to run to Jesus in confession this Lent. The whole community could be cured of our spiritual leprosy and we could lift each other up. If you have the courage to approach Jesus in the sacrament this Lent, then you too can hear the beautiful words of Jesus, spoken through the priest, “I absolve you from your sins. Be made clean.”