The cure of a leper

Friday January 10, 2020
After Epiphany
First Reading: 1 Jn 5:5-13
Gospel Reading: Lk 5:12-16

ONE day in another town, a man came to Jesus covered with leprosy. On seeing him he bowed down to the ground, and said, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched the man and said, “Yes, I want it. Be clean.” In an instant the leprosy left him. Then Jesus instructed him, “Tell this to no one. But go and show yourself to the priest. Make an offering for your healing, as Moses prescribed; that should be a proof to the people.”
But the news about Jesus spread all the more, and large crowds came to him to listen and be healed of their sickness. As for Jesus, he would often withdraw to solitary places and pray.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
For lack of cure, leprosy in the time of Jesus was as dreaded as today’s AIDS. It was so dreaded that even families did not hesitate to drive away any member inflicted by leprosy. This elevated the pain to higher levels, to the degree that death was even considered a soothing balm. In light of this, every leper nurtured two wishes in his heart: death or a cure. If a leper got cured he only needed final certification from the priest in order to be reintegrated to his family and society. But even then the stigma attached by society to the disease usually remained. Then one day a leper met a person who treated him differently. The man touched him even though words of command like “be cured” would have sufficed. The man was Jesus.
Today leprosy is no longer a dreaded disease. But we are not necessarily better off than our Old and New Testament counterparts. The loss of the sense of sin is worse than leprosy, and far worse than the AIDS virus inflicting our society. We say “worse” because the alienation of a leper in the time of Jesus was only from society. Something similar can be said of the alienation suffered by persons with AIDS today. The alienation of the sinner, however, is not just from neighbors but also from God. Worse, the alienation is voluntary. What a coincidence that the word “sin” carries the letters that can represent its elements. If “S” stands for self and “N” for neighbors, “I” can represent Freud’s “id” loosely translated for purposes of this reflection as the proud self. Central to “sin” is the proud self that alienates one from his neighbors.
Despite the willful self-alienation of the sinner, Jesus extends the same compassion he extended to the lepers of his time. Yes there is a cure to this modern form of leprosy inflicting our generation. The decision to get cured, however is still ours. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.