“And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him: and behold a leper came and adored him, saying: ‘Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’ And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: ‘I will, be thou made clean.’ And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith to him: ‘See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.’”
Having instructed the people in the wisdom of love, Jesus takes an offensive stance against the effects of sin, beginning with leprosy. Now, Jesus is not simply an idle teacher, but instructs those unburdened by sin in the divine mysteries while also descending to the lowliest, the one unable to climb the mountain of the Lord. A great multitude followed Him, because to love as God loves is extremely attractive, for it strikes the deepest need of the human heart: “For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O how many ways” (Psalm 62:2). The first to come to Him is a leper, which is a figure of grave sin. Now, it is a necessity, dearest Theophila, to understand the incredible beauty of the human soul, for it says in Proverbs: “Where there is no knowledge of the soul, there is no good” (Proverbs 19:2), for there is a need to understand the precious beauty of one’s neighbor, that you may approach them with proper reverence: “Reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 26:2), this sanctuary being the human soul. In understanding this and the beauty of your neighbor, you will be able to see clearly the horrors of sin, and how the one that is far from God, wrapped in their lusts, bears the same pity as a leper: “They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill” (Matthew 9:12), for all need love, and those that sin habitually and gravely are in the most need of someone to truly love them, to come down from the mountain to give them the gentle touch of God in the form of compassionate love. Lepers were instructed to keep themselves exiled from all religious and social life in Israel: “Now whosoever shall be defiled with the leprosy, and is separated by the judgement of the priest, shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth covered with a cloth, and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean. All the time that he is a leper and unclean, he shall dwell alone without the camp” (Leviticus 13:45-46), and in this is a great unveiling of the behavior of those in sin. The sacraments become terrifying or repulsive, society with spiritual people spurned, they do not clothe themselves in the garments of the Lord, which are attributes of Jesus, the mind is not covered with sound teaching, the mouth not proclaiming wisdom but covered with trivialities, and one lost to their passions screams by their behavior and words that they are far from God and are in desperate need of being loved. Thus, they dwell far from the heart of the Church, where love is. However, the leper here mentioned runs to Jesus, understanding Him to be truly God and gives Him the adoration due to Him, trusting His mercy and power to heal him, which draws compassion from the Heart of Jesus. Ah, here is a glorious mystery! For just as doctors are drawn by money, Jesus is drawn by lowliness: “For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low” (Psalm 137:6). Light seeks out what is dark to fill it with light, and Jesus seeks what is unlovable to fill them with love: “I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13), granted they turn their hearts to ask Him for this same love. Jesus then reaches out and touches the leper, for He is not afraid of anything in you or about you; no matter the depth of the infection of sin, Jesus is not repulsed. Anything can be brought to Him in the great sacrament of reconciliation, and He always wills to forgive: “Thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaias 38:17), no matter the burden one carries, it is akin to throwing a stick into the furnace of divine merciful love: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). The work is instant, the love is given, and “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us” (Psalm 102:12), just as the leprosy instantly left the leper. O magnificent mercy, that so dismisses the iniquities of Your people, punishing them with open arms and kisses of affection! “His father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). He then instructs the leper to tell no one, for ostentation and glory are tiresome things that can easily distract from the narrow way of loving at all times, and then to go to the Levitical priests and fulfill the prescriptions of the Law, which was also a light to the priests that the dawn of grace had arrived. Because Jesus had not yet offered His body as the true sacrifice of God, the leper is commanded to offer the animal sacrifice which was appropriate at the time. To you, Theophila, it is given to offer to the Father the merits of Jesus, with which you are clothed: “And she put on him very good garments of Esau, which she had at home with her” (Genesis 27:15), giving thanks for the diseases which Jesus has removed from you, allowing you to walk with the purity of a child: “Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean” (4 Kings 5:14). Therefore, run to His merciful love in confession often, that He may constantly reach out and touch your soul with His love, dispelling all that was not perfect love from you with a simple phrase: “I will, be made clean.”