In today’s Gospel, a leper comes to Jesus and says: “Lord, if you will to do so, you can make me clean.” Jesus’ response is: “I do will it. Be made clean!” In this miracle, like many other miracles of Jesus, one of the important elements is the reason Jesus performed the miracle. Jesus performs this miracle because He has compassion and He sees a person who is suffering not only physically from leprosy, but also emotionally from being an outcast. Jesus senses the leper’s pain who is not a simple sick person, but one who, in his illness, has many social conditionings. Jesus not only does not reject the leper but also, touches him. The miracle is not based only on curing a disease, but on changing the situation of the one who is considered impure, isolated, and marginalized. This is more important than the miracle of being cured of leprosy.
Today, Jesus wants to continue transforming lives and situations with His power. He wants to touch the lepers in our society so that things can begin to be different. At the beginning of this 2022, God wants to touch everything in us and in our society that needs to be transformed. God wants to give it a new meaning and value.
The leper had faith in Jesus. He recognized his limitations and confessed God’s power. As the Christmas season ends, let us pray to continue recognizing God’s power, love, and compassion and to allow God to renew and transform our world and us. Let us also welcome the invitation to use our humanity and gifts, so we can be instruments of the Reign of God in our world today.