The island of Molokai is one of the least populated of the Hawaiian Islands. It is located between and within sight of Oahu and Maui. But there are no resorts and only a single road on the island. On an isolated peninsula on the island is the leper colony of Kalaupapa. From 1860-1960, it was a place of exile for those suffering from leprosy, or more properly, Hansen’s disease. Two canonized saints worked with the residents, Father Damien De Veuster and Sister Marianne Cope. Damien died of the disease, Marianne did not.

Contrary to popular belief, leprosy is not highly contagious and is now easily cured with medications. About 180,000 people in the world have the disease, including about 200 in the United States.

Leprosy has been one of the most feared and misunderstood diseases for thousands of years. Almost always, those afflicted were forcibly separated from the rest of the population. This still happens in India, China, and parts of Africa. Until the 1990s there was a leper colony near Baton Rouge in Louisiana.

In the time of Jesus, leprosy was a term applied to any disease of the skin. Sufferers were strictly forbidden to interact in any way with other people.

The leper in today’s gospel   story actually broke the law in speaking with Jesus. And Jesus broke the law by touching the leper.

What made leprosy particularly devastating in Biblical times was the stigma of blaming the victims for their suffering. Leprosy was considered a punishment by God for a person’s sins. In not so subtle ways, we still do that in all kinds of ways. It’s almost someone’s personal fault if they catch a cold.

This demonstrates the ignorance and cruelty we human beings are capable of towards others.

Think, for example, of the irrational panic regarding the Ebola virus or the on-going discrimination against those with the HIVS/AIDS virus.

In the gospel accounts, Jesus is often reluctant to cure people of their diseases. In today’s story, he only cures the one leper and then ignores the crowds waiting to be cured. Jesus withdrew instead to a deserted place to pray.

Jesus came to heal people of spiritual alienation, not to cure their physical ailments. Not everyone is afflicted with physical disease; but everyone is in the need of spiritual cleansing.

We are human beings, not angels or gods. As such, we are limited by our own faults. And eventually the physical body will die, but not so our spiritual being. Not only will we live forever, but even in our time on Earth, it is subject to healing.

Since we are all subject to the same disease, as it were, there is no rational reason why we can judge or discriminate against anyone.

But, then, human beings do not always act rationally.

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