"How many people look on from afar and do not understand or care ... How many people look on from a distance but with bad heart, to put Jesus to the test, to criticize, to condemn him ... And how many people look on from a distance because they do not have the courage that He had, but really want to get closer! And in that case, Jesus reached out first.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Jesus teaches that "we can’t be a community, we can’t make peace, and we can’t do good without being close to people", reflected Pope Francis during his homily at Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta, inspired by the Gospel passage in which a leper prostrates himself before Jesus and says, "Lord, if you want, you can make me clean." Jesus touches him and heals him.

The miracle, said the Pope, takes place under the eyes of the doctors of the law who considered the leper "impure". "Leprosy was a life sentence" and "healing a leper was as difficult as raising a dead". And this is why they were marginalized. Instead, Jesus reaches out to the excluded and demonstrates the fundamental value of a word, "proximity", that is being close to others.

"We can’t be a community, we can’t make peace, and we can’t do good without being close to people. Jesus could just have said: 'Be cured!'. But no: he drew close to him and touched him. He did something more! As soon as Jesus touched the impure he became pure. And this is the mystery of Jesus:  He takes our dirt, our impure things upon himself. Paul says it well: 'Being equal to God, he did not claim this deity as an inalienable right; He emptied himself '. And then, Paul goes further: 'He became sin'. Jesus became sin. Jesus excluded himself, took our impurities upon himself to approach us. "

The Gospel passage also records the invitation that Jesus made to the healed the leper: "Be careful not to tell anyone; rather go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses as evidence to them". Francis said this is because, for Jesus inclusion is as essential as proximity. "So many times I think it is, not impossible, but very difficult to do good without getting your hands dirty. And Jesus got his hands dirty. Proximity. He then goes further. He said, 'Go to the priests and do what you must do when a leper is healed'. The person that was excluded from social life, Jesus includes: He includes them in the Church, He includes them in society ... 'Go, because all things are as they should be'. Jesus does not marginalize anyone ever. He marginalizes himself, to include the marginalized, to include us, sinners, outcasts, with his life”.

"How many people - commented Francis - followed Jesus at that time" and " How many people were watching from afar and did not understand nor care," Francis said. Some, he continued, watched with bad hearts, ready to put Jesus to the test, to criticize, and to condemn him. Others, he noted, watched from a distance because they lacked courage. Jesus doing this and reaching out to the marginalized epitomizes Christian proximity!".

It is "a nice word, proximity," said Francis, calling for an examination of conscience: "Do I know how to be close to others?".  Do I have the "heart, the strength, do I dare to touch the outcast?". One question, he says, which also concerns "the Church, parishes, communities, consecrated persons, bishops, priests, everybody.

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