Coping with health issues is stressful whether it is injury, receiving a diagnosis, chronic disease or terminal illness. According to many experts, depression, sadness frequently stems from an “incoherent story”, an “inadequate narrative account of oneself “or “a life story gone awry”. Serious illness is a time of profound change for people and their families.. One of the most challenging aspects of sickness or disability can be the isolation that it brings. We all need to connect with others, to be in communion with them. We don’t like to feel isolated or cut off from family, friends, or the wider community. The most isolating form of illness in the time of Jesus was leprosy. This Sunday’s gospel (Luke XVII, 11) tells us a story of ten men, lepers, seeking help healing. 

Both Jesus and the leper have something to say to us about steps we can take to connect with people, to break out of our isolation, our circles of bondage (addiction, anger, depressions, and all sort things that keep us in isolation from our true life) even when the odds seem to be stacked against us. We can all be tempted from time to time to retreat into our shell, whether it is because of our health or some disability or some past experience that has drained us of life. It is at such times that we need something of the initiative and daring energy of the leper. There can come a time when, like the leper, we need to take our courage in our own hands and, against the conventional expectation, to head out in some bold direction.

What the Lord did for the lepers he wishes to continue doing through each one of us in our own day, and that is our true Labor day. There are many isolated and lonely people among us. The scope is there for all of us to take the kind of step that Jesus took towards the leper. There are always people among us waiting to be touched by our compassionate presence. When they are, they can experience the same kind of transformation as the leper did in today’s gospel.