We hear of the healing of the leper in today’s Gospel. I just read the book In the Sanctuary of the Outcasts
by Neil White, a man who currently lives in Oxford who spent some time in
Carville, Louisiana at the leper colony there.
He felt as much as an outcast as the lepers did during his time there,
since he was spending his time there incarcerated as a federal prisoner after
living a very lavish lifestyle as a businessman and after having robbed a lot
of people of the money they invested with him.
He came to that federal prison very arrogant and very full of himself,
yet he learned a lot about life, about himself, and about God through his
interaction with the lepers who lived there.
When we hear the word “leper” in our modern world, we
immediately think of an outcast, of someone who is feared and condemned by the
rest of society. The name “leper”
certainly has a stigma connected to it.
Yet, Jesus allows the leper to approach him, and he makes the leper
clean due to the great faith and confidence he has in Jesus.
We may
want healing and miracles in our own lives, but perhaps God is enacting that
healing and those miracles in ways that are different from our
expectations. We may come to God
arrogantly and full of ourselves just as Neil White did when he entered that
leper colony in Louisiana. However, may
we approach the Lord with the humility and confidence of the leper that we hear
about today. May we always have faith in
our Lord.
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