Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time (June 30, 2017): When love hurts: healing the lepers of today.

Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Matthew 8:1-4
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/063017.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/17_06_30.mp3

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it. Be made clean.”
His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus shows his compassion for a leper by healing him with a touch of his hand. Who are the lepers of today? In biblical times, lepers were outcasts, forced to spend the rest of their years in leper colonies because healthy people might catch the disease. Touch was forbidden.

How important touch is! Abandoned babies in institutions die from lack of touch. Marriages wither from lack of hugging. Children grow up with poor self esteem from lack of physical nurturing. Jesus knew how important touch is. He not only healed the leper’s skin, he also healed his spirit by giving him what he needed most — human touch.

Who are the lepers in your life, i.e., the people who need your healing touch but who repulse you? I propose that they are the addicts you know. It can be any kind of addiction, including the most subtle. The primary symptom is that they are difficult to love because they never try hard enough to change. They repeatedly give us more grief than anyone else.

What do addicts/lepers need most? The healing touch of love, which is the gift of mercy for those who don’t deserve it. Jesus loves them unconditionally, and he wants us to do the same. The reason that most addicts are addicts is because they never received enough love as children and they still don’t know what love really is. They cannot give to us what they do not have.

However, Jesus is no longer here with a physical hand unless he touches the lepers through us. He needs us to reach out for him. They need us to be his healing hand, but this is a very difficult ministry. We prefer to limit our love to those who love us back. And yet, what they need most is our unconditional love — or more accurately, Jesus’ love coming to them through us.

To fulfill this mission, we have to be willing to forgive them over and over and over again. They don’t know how to receive our love. They don’t even know how to recognize it. So we have to persist and forgive and persist and forgive until finally — finally! — our love breaks through and the cleansing begins. And when they slip back into their old leprosy, we forgive them again. Our persistence in love, when combined with persistence in pointing them to other helping hands of Jesus, such as doctors and therapists, will eventually bring them all the way to the full cleansing that Jesus wants to give (although sometimes it doesn’t happen until the moment of their death).

Remember, you do an important ministry with Jesus when you serve as his healing hand. And it’s one of the most difficult ministries on earth. If we really want to be good Christians, we have to say yes to this calling. But we can succeed only if we continually turn to Jesus for strength, healing, and guidance.

* NOTE: If you are in an abusive relationship, your love will not make a difference unless the pattern of abuse is broken. Create separation until the abuser becomes safe and goes to therapy and/or anger management training. And go to a counselor yourself to learn how to avoid enabling the disease.

A longer reflection on this is published as a Good News WordByte at wordbytes.gnm.org/suffering-lepers-of-today/

Lord Jesus, you know the roots of what makes it difficult for me to love and be loved. Pronounce your Word upon me, and I’ll be healed. Then I’ll be a witness and and instrument to heal with your love those who need it more. Amen.