We hear of the healing of the leper in today’s Gospel. This Gospel story always reminds me of a book I read several years ago entitled In the Sanctuary of the Outcasts by Neil White, a man who was living in Oxford at the time the book was written. The book details the story of the time that he spent in the federal correctional facility in Carville, Louisiana, which was also the location of a leper colony. White felt as much as an outcast as the lepers did during his time there, spending his time there incarcerated as a federal prisoner after living a very lavish lifestyle as a businessman and after having robbed a lot of people of the money they invested with him, including family members and friends who trusted him. He came to that federal prison very arrogant and very full of himself, which he freely admits in his memoir, yet he learned a lot about life, about himself, and about God through his interaction with the lepers who lived there.
When we hear the word “leper” in our modern world, we immediately think of an outcast, of someone who is feared and condemned by the rest of society. The name “leper” certainly has a stigma connected to it. Yet, Jesus allows the leper to approach him, and he makes the leper clean due to the great faith and confidence he has in Jesus.
We may want healing and miracles in our own lives, but perhaps God is enacting that healing and those miracles in ways that are different from our expectations. We may come to God arrogantly and full of ourselves just as Neil White did when he entered that leper colony in Louisiana. However, may we approach the Lord with the humility and confidence of the leper that we hear about today. May we always have faith in our Lord.
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