"Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him..."  Today in the book of Leviticus we hear the very strict regulations regarding lepers and their contact with others.  These laws were as much a social as a religious necessity.  Leprosy in the ancient world was a devastating condition.  Due to the climate and poor sanitation, it was extremely contagious.  Those who contracted the disease were doomed to a slow and painful death.  They were forced to stay in isolated places and were reduced to begging and the charity of others in order to survive.  Their only companions were their fellow lepers. 

            What is most remarkable about today's gospel story is the way in which Jesus cured the leprous man.  Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.  While Jesus often touched the sick to restore their health, to touch a leper, was to become ritually impure.  Jesus' simple, healing touch was something very radical indeed. 

            This passage allows us an opportunity to consider the ways we think about and react to the reality of disease in our culture.  How do you deal with people who are sick?  Some of us are terrified at the thought of being around anyone who is sick.  It makes no difference if the disease is cancer or tuberculosis.  Some of us have a very hard time relating to disease and its attendant suffering.  Do we think that being around sick people will make us sick?  If we are not afraid of contagion, then of what are we afraid?  Does the presence of illness deny our physical immortality?  

            One of the great innovations in recent medical history is the hospice movement.  Hospice care aims at providing support so that the terminally ill can experience the end of their lives with peace and dignity, whether at home or in the hospital.  Hospice supports both the patient and the family.  At the most important time in the life and death of a patient, hospice allows a person to be surrounded with the family and friends that provide real meaning to the patient's life.  It is one of the ways in which we can touch the dying in a meaningful way as Jesus did. 

            In each of our lives we must eventually come to terms with sickness, suffering and death.  Denial only puts off the inevitable.  None of us is going to leave this world alive.   Let us overcome our fear and touch those who suffer with Christ’s healing love.