Jesus, compassionate and brotherly at the same time, breaks the view of a prejudiced religion that sees the leper as unclean. The Lord approaches, touches him, and heals him. Christ is free, he is responsible, because he breaks barriers to set God's child free
Father Cesar Augusto, SJ – Vatican News
The first reading tells us about the bias of someone suffering from a disease. What used to be leprosy may be AIDS today. What is important is to reflect our attitudes towards the sick of our time and the attitudes of our contemporaries.
Let's see how Jesus would deal with this topic. Mark, in his Gospel, tells us the scene of a leper approaching God and asking Him to heal him. Master heals him by touching him.
We have two actors in the scene: the leper and Jesus. The leper really wants to be healed. Between keeping the ritualistic rules and breaking them to get closer to God, he chooses the latter. Their will to heal and faith in God's power is stronger than Jewish medicine. If you suffer from a socially excluded disease, only the priest can free you from this stain because you deserve this mark for your wrongdoing. It is the physical reflection of the spiritual, so these people thought.
Jesus, compassionate and brotherly at the same time, breaks the view of a prejudiced religion that sees the leper as unclean. The Lord approaches, touches him, and heals him. By actually freeing man from his sickness and guilt, the Lord shows himself greater than the priests.
The second text, taken from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, teaches us to be independent. To be free for Paul is to be responsible, to do all things for the salvation of all, and not to think of one's own good.
Jesus is free and he is responsible because he breaks the barriers to set God's child free.
Dear listening brethren, how free are we? How far do we face prejudices, fears, and apprehensions to be brothers? How far do we allow our quiet, peaceful life to continue, even if this attitude preserves our selfishness, preserves our dignity, and harms the love of God, which has identified brotherly love, the humiliated, and the afflicted?
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