The story continues: “So greatly loathsome was the sight of lepers to him at one time, he used to say, that, in the days of his vanity, he would look at their houses only from a distance of two miles and he would hold his nostrils with his hands. But now, when by the grace and the power of the Most High he was beginning to think of holy and useful things, while he was still clad in secular garments, he met a leper one day and, made stronger than himself, he kissed him. From then on, he began to despise himself more and more, until, by the mercy of the Redeemer, he came to perfect victory over himself. Of other poor, too, while he yet remained in the world and still followed the world, he was the helper, stretching forth a hand of mercy to those who had nothing, and showing compassion to the afflicted.”
St Francis kissed a leper. The leper, spiritually, healed Francis. How interesting!
Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Leprosy was a terrible disease. It was contagious and common in Biblical times. To protect the community, lepers were separated from it, as this portion of the Law of Moses shows. While contemporary scholars say that all that looked like leprosy was not, if a person truly had leprosy, the separation was a long, slow death sentence.
I recently watched the DVD, “Molokai: The Story of Father Damien.” The movie made very clear what having leprosy meant physically and socially. In the movie, Fr. Damien had orders not to touch the lepers. From the beginning, he touched, held, and kissed them as if there was no leprosy upon them. Doing that transformed him over time.
Hmm. Is this a pattern?
Mark 1:40-45
I have several commentaries on the Gospel of Mark. ALL of them say that the key to appreciating Mark’s Gospel is seeing it as how God saves people through Jesus. Today we finish chapter one. In this first chapter Jesus listens to John the Baptist, is baptized, begins to gather disciples, teaches in the synagogue, then (1) casts out demons, (2) heals many illnesses, and now (3) heals a leper.
It is helpful to see how Mark is creating a pattern for evangelization: reach out, help, then…. Today, when Jesus reaches out, something new is added: Jesus is touched, even before he heals the leper.
How does Jesus heal him? Read the details of Mark 1:40-44. A very important word in this narrative is σπλαγχνισθεὶς That is a Greek word that means literally “Jesus felt the pain of the man in his bowels.”
Today we could say that Jesus had empathy for him. He was touched by the man’s need, moved, influenced—changed. THEN he reached out to the man, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be cured.” And the man was cured.
Jesus gives us an example of how we can heal people by first being touched by them.
I Corinthians 10:31-11:1
This passage gives an interesting twist to the readings on leprosy. It isn’t talking about leprosy, but about generally how to interact with the world.
One way to read this passage is to paraphrase Paul’s words this way: “Whatever you do, do everything to point to God’s goodness. Say things in ways that are less likely to irritate people and more likely to attract them. Do this for people who see life like you see it and those who don’t. (Everyone reading would have been Jew or Greek). Instead of just thinking about what you would like to say, also think about what people are ready to hear. Think of the common good and speak to the common good to bring as many people to Jesus as you can.”
Maybe it is my background as a therapist, but skilled conversation–listening with empathy and then speaking to create a unity around the common good–is a way to live a healing life.
Let me talk about empathy for a moment. Empathy is about how you listen. It can also be an element in how you speak to get other people to listen to you. It is a way to connect with just about anyone.
As a therapist, empathy is a tool of my trade. I listen, put myself in another’s “shoes,” and connect to meet that person as close to where they are emotionally, cognitively, spiritually as I can.
I’ve done it for years, taught it to many clients, therapists, and family educators. From the beginning, when I first learned it in 1989, it changed my life. I could write a book of transformative experiences when I touched people very different from me via empathy, and they touched me.
But today I am seeing something clearly that I have only seen in broad strokes before: Jesus was emotionally touched by the leper BEFORE he healed him. So was St. Francis. So was St. Damien of Molokai.
So am I, often now, when I hear the stories of immigrants and refugees in my work at Centro de San Juan Diego. Whether I have matured, my empathy has deepened, or that Jesus is in the tabernacle in the chapel downstairs, I don’t know.
I simply know that I have moved from clinical empathy to spiritual oneness—like Jesus, in my bowels, in both my emotions and the core of my being. As I listen, put myself in the place of people sometimes very different from me (yet very much like me in other ways) and connect through our shared faith and humanity, I experience something that is making me different—softer, yes, but also stronger. I can’t describe it, except to say I am in the middle of God working to heal—the person sitting across from me—and me.
So, the heart of this reflection is the value of kissing a leper, ie, of letting people touch my heart, so we can connect, and so God can come into the space between us.
While I have never literally kissed–or even seen in person–someone with an active, destructive case of leprosy, I am finding that the more I am able to connect with people sentenced by family or culture to isolation, the deeper my empathy and my faith. So my question is real: Where is a leper I can kiss?
Prayer
Move me in my bowels, Lord, when I encounter someone who is different or rejected or isolated or in need. Take down the barriers I put up. Soften me. Open me. May I also be open to You, as You come into my heart and into the heart of the other. Help to see that as a way to live what Paul said, as a way to follow Jesus. Lead me, heal me, guide me, Lord.
