Friday after Epiphany
January 7, 2022
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Luke 5:12-16
The final aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry that this series of readings gives us is that of deliverer from contamination and impurity. Lepers were outcasts from society–people so filthy that they couldn’t even be touched. They were impure, and their affliction was thought to be due to their sinfulness.
Jesus is not repulsed or disgusted by lepers. He’s quite at ease dealing with them and delivering them from their uncleanness.
We too, suffer from uncleanness, but of a different kind. We are infected with the self-indulgence and cruelty and violence of the world around us. Yet Jesus stretches out his hand to cleanse us. That’s a dimension of what he’s all about.
