The man who came to Jesus was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. Apart from the danger and discomfort, there was another, perhaps even more devastating consequence for the sufferer. Because the disease was feared to be contagious and was hard to cure, the sick person was banished from the community, forced to live at a safe distance even from family and friends. Food and drink, for example, were left at an appointed pick up place. The loneliness of this undeserved exile must have been unbearable.

In the reading from Kings and in the Responsorial Psalm we meet another example of exile, Israelites in Babylon, exiles because of their infidelity to Yahweh, but now longing for their country and for the temple which deep down they loved. We may not yet know such pain but we must be prepared because it may well become part of our lives. We must learn solitude. In solitude, in the rich depths of our inner lives and in a relationship with God we will find an antidote to the gradual loss of friends through aging. We will find too a remedy for the isolation imposed by misfortune, by physical or psychological illness and by the effects of our own sins and the sins of others.