Sunday 14th February
The leprosy about which the first reading and the gospel speak this weekend is not to be confused with contemporary Hansen’s disease, medically identified only in 1868 by the Norwegian scientist Gerhard Hansen. A number of conditions, especially those with the signs of scaly skin, swellings, and exuding bodily fluids, are described as ‘leprosy’ in this weekend’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus. Skin that flaked off, fluids that were unnaturally exuded from the body were considered to be conditions that violated religious-cultural boundaries connected with integrity, and therefore holiness, of the human body, and so were considered to diminish the worth of the person. People with such conditions were banished from the community, compelled to cry “unclean!” and make themselves obviously dishevelled so that others would avoid them. To be “unclean” was also regarded as a moral failing and therefore sinful. The person who came into contact with such an afflicted one was regarded as being contaminated and as ritually unclean and as adding to the moral pollution of the very gregarious Middle Eastern society. Leprosaria and Hansen’s disease still exist in some parts of the world, but social and religious alienation due to other causes is sadly much more familiar. Who are today’s ‘lepers,’ people whom some consider as being ‘polluting’ the homogenous and often exclusive society by their differences in race, culture, social mores, or physical and intellectual disabilities? The attitudes of the Nazis to the Jews, the Hutus to the Tutsis, second people to the first and indigenous people of a land, are bred by a ‘leper’ mindset. What are our attitudes to those that we might consider as weakening the moral fibre of society - the drug addicts, the HIV/AIDS sufferers , those in prison? Are we on the side of harsh, punitive justice or compassionate restorative justice? And do we consider that the pollution of our planet, by us, can be sinful? In the gospel, Jesus is approached by a leper. He makes no attempt to move away from him. What he is moved by is compassion, the deep gut-wrenching response that identifies with the suffering of another, and his hand stretches out to touch the man and affirm his choice to heal him. How long had it been since the leper had felt the touch of another human being on his diseased flesh, had heard words of affirmation rather than insult? We should be more enlightened about the importance of touch - the holding of the hand of those seriously ill or dying, the silent embrace of the bereaved. Yet for some people there is the almost hysterical avoidance of touching the HIV/ AIDS sufferer, or of drinking from the chalice at communion in case, contrary to all medical opinion, one might be infected by this. Jesus’ compassion and humanity bridge the gap between the holy and the unclean, freedom and taboos, sickness and health.
