Dear friends,

The first reading for this Sunday outlines the harsh laws for people with skin diseases usually labeled as “leprosy”

God gave Moses extensive instructions to deal with it. The belief that only God could heal leprosy is key to understanding today's miracle that proves Jesus' identity. Since jesus cured the leprosy he must be God.

In Jesus' time, lepers were forced to exist outside the community, separated from family and friends and thus deprived of the experience of any form of human interaction.

Mark  tells us that the leper appears abruptly in front of Jesus: "begging him and kneeling before him." In even approaching Jesus, the leper has violated the Bible. By touching the reviled outcast, Jesus openly defied the law.

When I visited a leprosy hospital in Liberia, the Sister in charge, accompanying me said: "Simply touch them. You have no idea what the touch means, when they are kept as animals and monsters."

I laid hands on many of those people and touched their disfigured faces and bodies. Tears streamed down my face as the women and men and several children shrieked at first then wept openly. They reached out to hug and embrace me.

Those unforgettable days taught me what the social and physical condition of lepers must have been at the time of Jesus. There was not much difference between then and now.

As we read the story of Jesus among the outcasts, let us recall with gratitude the lives of three remarkable people in our Catholic tradition who worked with lepers and dared to touch and embrace those who were afflicted with that debilitating disease.

First, Blessed  Father Damian of Molokai who in 1873  started ministering  among the abandoned lepers on Molokai which was considered "the cemetery and hell of the living". Becoming a leper himself in 1885, he died in April 1889, a victim of his charity for others. In 1994, Pope John Paul II beatified Father Damien.

Second, Blessed Sister Marianne. IShe worked with Father Damien and with the outcasts of society as they were abandoned on the shores of the island. She loved them all and showed her selfless compassion to those suffering from leprosy. People of all religions of the islands still honor and revere Father Damien and Mother Marianne who brought healing to body and soul.

Finally Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who was never afraid to see and touch the face of Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.

Most people will never encounter lepers. Nor will we know what it means to be completely ostracized by society. But there are other forms of leprosy today, which destroy human beings, kill their hope and spirit, and isolate them from society.

We have to find out who are the “modern lepers” in our lives;  those people around us who suffer with physical, spiritual, moral deceases.; the people  that need our touch, our love.