Some years ago at a city zoning hearing for a health clinic for persons with mental illnesses, the president of the organization that was trying to obtain the permit, said that he felt that persons with a mental illness were stigmatized, stereotyped and treated like ‘lepers.’

Today’s readings in Church reminded me of his statement. The reading from the Old Testament was about persons with leprosy being declared ‘unclean’ and isolated from the community. The reading from the Gospel of the New Testament was about a leper knelling down and begging Jesus to make him clean. Jesus treated the person with his healing touch saying “Be made clean.” In a day with no doctors and hospitals modern medicine healers were the best hope for the ill. Jesus warned the man to be quiet about the healing but the man could not help himself and publicized to everyone how he has been healed. In fact he spread the word “abroad so that was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.” Jesus had to find deserted places and yet people kept coming to him from everywhere to be healed. (Mark 1: 40–45)

Being marginalized, rejected, stigmatized and ignored unfortunately is still prevalent in our society for persons with mental illnesses, for young adult African American black males and for people who bear a message not many want to hear.

The only way to keep stigma, like the leaper faced in the Gospel, from keeping you down is to go Jesus, God or higher power, kneel down and ask for healing strength to keep on going and not let the leprosy or stigma bring you down.

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.