We, however, have even greater cause to do likewise, because we have been delivered from something infinitely worse than leprosy, and have been given something infinitely better than the new life which the leper was now entering.

As we are reminded in the Eucharist, God has created us and all humankind to share his eternal glory.  But there is no smooth transition from creation to glory.  We ourselves, along with the rest of humankind, have seen to that by our many sins, and by our rebellious hearts where those sins have their origin.  Thus we are the architects of our own separation from our Creator.  For sin and God are eternally incompatible.  As St John reminds us, “…God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (NRSV, 1 John 1:5).