Hebrews 3:7-14 / Mark 1:40-45
There is a fairy tale called "The Frog Prince" which we had probably heard before.
In that tale, a spoilt princess dropped a golden ball into a pond and a frog emerged from the pond and told the princess that it would retrieve the ball for her. His only request was that she kissed him after he had gotten back the ball for her.
The princess promised but after she got back the ball she hurried back to her castle without kissing the frog. That evening while having dinner, there was a knock on the door, and the frog was there demanding that the princess keep her promise.
But of course being a fairy tale, the princess kept her promise, kissed the frog, and it transformed into a handsome prince.
But in real life you may have to kiss a lot of frogs before you can find your true love. Yet, true love is about kissing the frogs regardless of whether they will turn into a handsome prince or not.
And Jesus demonstrated that true love by reaching out and touching a leper. The leper got healed and found back the dignity of his life.
But the real healing was that where others have turned him away and driven him out, Jesus touched him. And even if he was not cured of the leprosy, that touch of Jesus would be good enough.
We are not asked to touch lepers or kiss frogs; we are called to be loving and forgiving and to respect the dignity of people, especially the ones that we dislike or even detest.
As the 1st reading reminds us, the Holy Spirit is prompting us to listen to His voice and not to harden our hearts.
Jesus reached out and touched us even when we are deformed and ugly with sin. Yes, that is how much Jesus loves us. The least that we can do is to be loving in the simple and ordinary ways.