Spirit-Centered Moment: by John J. Brugaletta

THE LEPERS

A Poem based on Luke 17:11-19

Written by John J. Brugaletta of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Eureka, CA

Because our skins are pocked,

because this renders us unclean,

because we do not wish to stain the pure,

we ring this warning bell and call, “Defiled.”

We have no fellowship except

with those whose sickness shows like ours,

or did not till there came to us

the only man not leprous in the world.

He was immune to this.

It was his purity

that was contagious:

touched by him, we caught his good.

Those who stayed away

had leprosy like us