When I read today’s gospel, I was moved by the humble gestures of the leper. He fell, prostrated and pleaded with the Lord, ‘ if you can, you can make me clean. That was a deep level of faith and humility. He mustered courage and dared the society.

Lepers were the untouchables of Jesus’ time and yet, we read that Jesus reached out and touched the leper. Closer to our day is Saint Damian of Molokai, SS.CC who lived in the mid-nineteenth century and not too different from today, some people in his world were treated as untouchables and were legally shunned and quarantined from the rest of society.

These people, like the one Jesus touched in today’s gospel selection were exiled to the island of Molokai where they were expected to fend for themselves. Father Damian left the comfort of his home in Belgium and went to live with the outcasts on Molokai helping them by medically, spiritually and physically providing for them and eventually died from leprosy himself.

There is a lesson here something more important than me and my well-being. There is us and our well-being. Yes, Damian eventually caught leprosy and died from choosing to touch those he served, as did Jesus for doing and teaching what he taught. Their gifts of themselves gave us a better world.

There are still a lot of diseases that medicine has not found lasting remedies for but all what God wants me to do is love. Love is sharing oneself life with the other. The gift of self. Be that gift today.

God help us to love all the people we come in contact with and those who contact us. Help us to believe that You are in control , not me. Amen.

Rev. Fr. Joseph Osho, OSJ.