There is a well-known story of the encounter between Saint Francis of Assisi and a leper. A beautiful small chapel in the countryside near Assisi marks the place where this life-changing event occurred. The story recounts how Francis heard a bell announcing the coming of a leper, and he intuitively turned in the opposite direction to get away. Lepers were outcasts, living beyond the margins of society, unable to enjoy any benefit from the community. This time however, Francis stopped and turned around. He approached the leper, embraced him, and kissed him. This was a significant moment in his life because for the first time he saw a leper as a fellow human being.
Reflecting on this event at the Convocation of Catholic leaders in Orlando last July, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston observed that Saint Francis did not cure the leper, but rather it was the leper who cured Francis. After this encounter, the leper remained a leper, but Francis was healed of his vanity and fear. The sick man set Francis on the path to conversion and sanctity. This encounter, which occurred in the periphery of society, transformed Francis forever because at that moment he encountered Christ. It was among those excluded from society, those living in the margin, that Francis found Christ.
Speaking on evangelization, Cardinal O’Malley pointed out that the Church’s mission to care for the sick and suffering prepares the way for evangelization. The works of mercy are not an extra duty of a Christian, but rather are an essential part of the Christian mission. “Mercy is the medicine that cures the sadness in the heart of the one who practices mercy and the one who receives it,” remarked O’Malley.
In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis forcefully states that the Church must go out of herself, going forth from her comfort zone in order to reach all people, especially the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel (EG, 20). It is by ministering in the peripheries that those in need receive the mercy they long for, and where the hearts of those ministering are converted and transformed. Making a reference to the Last Supper, Cardinal O’Malley beautifully expressed that “we must stop fighting over the first place at the table, and start fighting for the towel.”
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, challenged the delegates present at the Orlando Convocation stating, “where there is suffering, Jesus is there; and where Jesus is, I must be also. Jesus is already in the margins, will his disciples also be there? If Christ is already there, can it truly be a periphery? It is our own shortsightedness that keeps us away.” The Gospel demands that we go wherever the need is greater. It is easy to hide behind clean and clear structures, yet the Gospel requires that our hands get dirty. Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Francis of Assisi, and soon-to-be Blessed Father Stanley Rother understood this urgent need to go out, so they became effective evangelizers from the periphery.
On November 2013 Pope Francis embraced Vinicio Riva, a man covered in tumors. This was Francis embracing the leper, a Pope showing the way to the periphery through his actions and words. “It is important for the Church today to go forth and preach to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance or fear. The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded” (EG, 23).
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