This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next two minutes to reflect

with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on Fire Catholic

Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization, using

new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts

to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our hearts are open,

the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about the one who

is love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese of

Chicago now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Friends, the book of Leviticus is clear

and blunt on the subject of lepers. Listen, this is from our first reading for today. The

one who bears the sword of leprosy, shall keep his garments rent and his head bear, and shall

muffle his beard. He shall cry out, unclean, unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his

abode outside the camp. Now, to give the ancient Israelites their due, contagious skin diseases,

which sometimes resulted in the rotting away of hands and limbs, were certainly dangerous

business. Without all the advantages of modern medicine, all they could do was to ostracize

people burdened with this disease. But think how awful this made life for the leper. Outside

the camp, that means outside the community life, outside the circle of affection, love,

support, life became difficult, almost to the point of impossibility. Simply getting

sufficient food and drink was a major difficulty. In social interaction, friendship, even religious

life, because the leper would not be involved in the temple or synagogue, all of that was

simply out of the question. Marginal, cut off, lifeless, hopeless. That was the condition of a

leper in biblical times. Now, I realize this has become the cliched stuff of a thousand sermons,

but it's still legitimate, I think, to extrapolate from ancient leprosy to all sorts of modern forms

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