“Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me.” Matthew 8:2

 A very brief, direct, trusting, hopeful prayer. And Jesus responds positively, “Yes I want to and yes I can, and because I want and I can, I will do it.” Jesus, full of tenderness and compassion, performs this sign. We are following in his footsteps, and now we find him beside the leper. Jesus touches him, says the Gospel, and no one could do it, for fear of contamination. Jesus touches the leper and in him the human being “in his suffering”, “in his sin”; He is a savior, merciful, full of tenderness and full of power. He does not exclude us, He does not reject us; on the contrary, He draws near to us and He opens the door, because “He is the door of salvation for all humankind”

Cardinal Luis José Rueda