Monday of the Third Week of Lent – Life after leprosy

Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-15ab.  Psalms 42:2, 3; 43:3,4.  Luke 4:24-30.

The irony is totally lost on these people of Nazareth in today's Gospel. Outraged by Jesus' teaching, they drive him out of the town and seek to hurl him over the cliff. Thus, they unintentionally bear witness that he is indeed a prophet.

And what is this prophetic teaching of Jesus that they found so offensive and uncomfortable? It is the idea that God not only cares about His people, Israel, but also loves the rest of humanity. Certainly, Israel is God's chosen people, according to an irrevocable covenant. But Jesus reveals the infinite love of the Father for all of humanity. Jew or Gentile, we all fall short of the glory of God and stand in need of His loving mercy. 'Athirst is my soul for the living God' (Ps. 42:3) – and God in His infinite goodness does not despise our needs.

This is not news to the people of Nazareth; their own Law and Prophets taught this. The Old Testament repeatedly says: never worship a foreign god, but always welcome the foreigner. The foreigner, as much as you, is made in the image of God.

We can draw a parallel here with the dictum, 'hate the sin, love the sinner'. The sinner (i.e. all of us) is nevertheless made in the image of God, an image which the sin mars and obscures. Human beings are not made for sin; we are made for life, life in all its fulness as children of God. So, to destroy the sin in us is not to destroy us but to save us. We are not our sins – we need to be saved from our sins.

Naaman the Syrian is a good example of this. His leprosy (which we can take as an image of sin, though it is not his fault) is not what Naaman was made for; it is a diminution of his humanity and not a necessary part of it. He was a valiant and successful army commander, we're told, and yet he had leprosy. I say, 'he had leprosy', rather than, 'he was a leper', to avoid identifying him with his disease. His leprosy was disposable, so that when he was cleansed he became more of a man, not less. He was restored to his full dignity as a human being.

It's the same with sin. If, like Naaman and his leprosy, we allow God to wash our sins away – and if, unlike the Nazarenes, we welcome Jesus into our lives – our hearts will become again like the heart of a little child, and we will be clean.