The Holy Priest-Martyr Dionysius the Areopagite.
Philippians 1:8-14; Luke 5:12-16.
Read Luke 5:12-16
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
The man in today’s gospel has a disease that in the New Testament and the Greek versions of the Old Testament was called lepra. Modern scholars have suggested that this was not actually the dangerous and disfiguring condition called Hansen’s disease, which we commonly call leprosy. Rather, it appears to describe a group of less serious skin conditions (some perhaps as mild as eczema) that nonetheless rendered the person ritually impure. And that impurity meant that anyone with lepra could not enter the temple and participate in Israel’s worship of the one true God. So, when Jesus heals this man, it is significant that he sends him to the temple priests for examination. This is a hint at what the man is being restored to: a relationship with God in his special place of worship and sacrifice.
That is what God wants to give us as well: a restored relationship with him and his Church. The impurity of lepra may seem arbitrary, but it likely signaled something to the people of Israel about human mortality. In the same way, our sins both point to, and in an ultimate sense, cause our mortality. But God wants to heal us and restore us to relationship with him. He wants to give us life, and to have us live with him forever. Let him do that work of restoration.
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