Fr. John Zuhlsdorf: 13th Sunday After Pentecost: “Unclean! Unclean”

The onset of Hansen’s Disease comes with patches of skin that change color and become numb.  If left untreated, it can result in paralysis, the reabsorption into the body of the extremities, ulcerations, blindness, disfiguration.  It is not highly contagious, but it can spread through contact or breathing in airborne droplets from coughs.  Most people have a natural immunity and only about 5% of people are at risk to get it.  People didn’t know that in the 1st century AD.  It is treated, and can be cured, with multiple antibiotics over time.  But people in Jesus’ day didn’t have those things.  They didn’t know it came from a microscopic nerve-attacking organism Mycobacterium leprae. All they knew was that the disfiguring and necrotic progress of Leprosy was terrifying.   It was associated with sin and ritual uncleanness. …