Healing the Leper

With leprosy, bacteria attacks nerve endings and destroys the body's ability to feel. Without the sensation of feeling, people injure themselves on fire, thorns, rocks, even hot coffee cups. Injuries become infected and result in tissue loss. Fingers and toes become shortened and deformed as the cartilage is absorbed into the body. It can also result in difficulty breathing and poor vision.

When I read this definition of what leprosy is, I was surprised.  I always thought it was a skin condition not a nerve condition.  My husband even likes to joke around that he has "leprosy"when his skin is dry or peeling.   I suppose there are many people through time, even during the time of Christ, that have thought it was some sort of contagious skin condition.  But it's not, it's damage to the nerves, the ability to feel which leads to injury of the skin.  This made me think of the scripture in  1Ne. 17:45 where Nephi speaks of his brothers as being “past feeling.” Could there be an emotional and spiritual kind of leprosy?

In every account that I have read where Christ heals the leper it always says that they were "immediately" healed.
If there is an emotional equivalent to leprosy, why can't that be immediately healed???  Why does it have to take 30 to 40 years or even a life-time for some?

What kinds of things in our lives make us "past feeling?"  What numbs our ability to be conscious in our surroundings?  What corrodes our awareness of the Spirit in our lives, or dulls our sense of true identity?  I believe a big one in today's world is addiction.  Those caught in it's ugly cycle, those who have constant regular relapses or just an occasional regurgitation, it doesn't really matter; each relapse "attacks the nerves, the sensation of feeling, leaving one open for greater injury and infection."

How sad that in Christ's time, the lepers were shunned or isolated, despised and rejected.  They weren't contagious, they had self-inflicting injuries. And even though they were past feeling, I am certain they hungered all the more for closeness.

"The Little Prince" by, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has been a favorite book of mine that I have treasured for years. There's a part in the story that illustrates the cycle of addiction perfectly.  The scene is where the innocent boy meets a drunk man (or tippler) for the first time and it "plunges the little prince into deep dejection.":

"What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, who he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.
"I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.
"Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.
"So that I may forget," replied the tippler.
"Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.
"Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.
"Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.
"Ashamed of drinking!" The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.  And the little prince was puzzled.

As puzzling as it is.... such is the cycle of those who struggle with addiction.  The very thing that numbs them that "kills their pain" is the very source of their pain.  How do they break free of this vexatious cycle?  How do they "bury their weapons of war" deep in the ground and never pick them up again? (Alma 24: 17-18)

All things are possible through Christ, I know this!  There is a way out of the cycle.  The little prince was discouraged because there was really nothing he could do to help this man and it puzzled him each time he saw him lift the bottle again to his lips.  "Why?  Why don't you just stop?  Why do you keep returning to this?" No doubt, the man asks himself the same question all the time and even hates himself for it.

The third step in the addiction recovery program is to "Trust in God."  I believe this step is equally as vital to those who have loved ones that struggle with addiction as it is to those who are trapped in its awful vice.  We would all do well to trust God a little more to pray and seek for strength, for wisdom beyond our own.

 “God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

We are all agents "free to act for ourselves."  We cannot change the actions of others or make them heal.  We can love them though, love them, forgive them, keep loving them, and most of all... trust God!  I believe He has the power to heal the leper and I know he can heal our loved ones caught in addiction, completely, wholly and forever! However long and hard that road may be to full and complete healing... There is no hunger, no heartache, no sorrow, no injury, pain, or weakness that He cannot repair or make right.  I trust this.

I trust Him.

-Alicia