Gospel: Mark 1: 40-45
In today's Gospel portion we find a leper approach Jesus freely - an unclean person who is a complete outcast to the rest of society. He asks to be healed, saying that if he wills it, Jesus can make him clean. Jesus does in fact will it. He does not shrink from the encounter with this person. He embraces it and makes this person whole because the man needs it, because it is the right thing to do, because he is the extension of God's mercy on earth.
Even when people, like this leper, do not heed the command of Jesus, they are healed. The healing is not contingent on anything else. What is more, there is never an instance where Jesus refuses to heal another person, or liberate them from their demons, or eat with another and nourish them at table. Jesus does so for the foreigner and outcast, the sinner, his enemies, even those who will betray him and deny him. The mercy of God is open to all people.
Is that the case with us? We often state this to be so, and we love to sing All Are Welcome, but are they? How many unclean people do we have in our lives - people we would not eat at table with, attend church with, or associate in any way? Today is a day for us to reflect upon and to work toward this ideal which Jesus sets before us: to care for all people, to welcome all people without question or qualification, to be the extension of God's mercy in the world as Jesus was.
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