9 March. Compassion. SEE.  Prudence had been an AIDS activist. She compared the COVID-19 pandemic to HIV/AIDS and also to leprosy, which had historically been a serious scourge in Jesus’ day and also at the time of St Francis.  The stigma in such cases was almost as bad as the disease. She explained the Biblical story of Naaman a highly-placed foreigner, a proud and arrogant man, who suffered from leprosy and was seeking help from the prophet Elisha.   The prophet at first treated him with some disdain, telling him to go and wash in the river Jordan. 

JUDGE, reflect and share. Scripture:. Naaman was angry and went away, saying, Behold I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord. 1 Kings 5:15 But Naamanhumblylistened to his servant’s advice and did wash himself and was miraculously made clean.  He came back to thank Elisha and acknowledged the greatness of the God of Israel.  Jesus himself and St Francis had not treated lepers cruelly by keeping them at a distance, but had been caring and had healed them.  

Pope Leo message for World Day of the Sick.: In the parable of the Good Samaritan, he saw the wounded man, he did not “pass by.” Instead, he looked upon him with an open and attentive gaze – the very gaze of Jesus – which led him to act with human and compassionate closeness. The Samaritan “stopped, approached the man and cared for him personally, even spending his own money to provide for his needs… Above all he gave him his time.”  Jesus does not merely teach us who our neighbor is, but rather how to become a neighbor; how we can draw close to others. Saint Augustine teaches that the Lord did not intend to show us who that man’s neighbor was, but rather to whom he should become a neighbor. No one is truly a neighbor until they freely draw near to another. The one who became a neighbor was the one who showed mercy. Love is not passive; it goes out to meet the other. Being a neighbor is not determined by physical or social proximity, but by the decision to love. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/sick/documents/20260113-messaggio-giornata-malato.html

From THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF ST FRANCIS.   In one story about St Francis there was a patient in the leprosy hospital who was so insolent and rude to those who served him that they thought he was possessed by a devil and no one would attend to him. St Francis himself visited the leper and wished him peace.  The man replied, “What peace can I look for from God who has taken from me peace and every other blessing and made me a putrid and disgusting object.” Francis humbly asked how he could help and the man said, “wash me.” That is what Francis did, washing the man with his own hands. His flesh was miraculously healed and the angry and bitter leper repented as his body and his soul were purified. 

Reflect, share, act, pray.  During Lent are we as kind and compassionate as we could be towards patients and families who are struggling with illness especially mental illness?  Is this not also a form of responding to “the cry of the poor?”