6/30/2017 – Friday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time – Matthew 8:1-4

     After the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus performs a series of miracles and healings. They demonstrate the authority of Jesus’ teachings and emphasize his proclamation of God’s kingdom, which is the context in which we hear Jesus healing the leper in today’s Gospel.

        Leprosy is not a disease that confronts us in the daily lived reality in modern America. However, when I read this story of the leper in today’s reading, I thought of the Louisiana Leper Home located on the banks of the Mississippi River, founded in 1894 in Carville, Louisiana on the site of an abandoned sugar plantation.  I remember the first year I was a priest at St Richard, I was planning a funeral with the sons of an elderly parishioner who had passed away.   We had picked out all of the readings, choosing traditional ones from the funeral planning guide, when we started talking about their father’s life.   These men mentioned that their dad had been an occupational therapist, with the thing he was most proud of in his career was the several years he spent as a young man working with the lepers in Carville.  I told the sons that we should pass over the Gospel reading we had originally chosen and pick this Gospel reading from Matthew about the healing of the leper. Their father had been so devoted to helping the lepers function as best they could through the effects of this terrible disease, so they thought that this Gospel reading of the healing of the leper reflected their dad and the values by which he lived. 

        We can wait for miracles to happen in our lives, and sometimes they do happen, but what wonderful initiative the leper takes today in approaching Jesus and having faith that his touch has the power to heal.  The psalm response today announces: "See how the Lord blesses those who fear him."  Instead of thinking of fear as being afraid of punishment, we should see fear in this context as having a healthy respect for God, being in awe in his presence, and recognizing his power and omniscience.  Do we approach God in prayer with the problems and struggles that we face in life?  Do we come to him in humility and gratitude?  Jesus can heal our bodies and our souls, but only if we place our trust in him.