By Water & Blood

Homily 8.7: The ulcer and the scar

The third law about lepers is when an ulcer is brought out on the skin of the body, and in the place of the ulcer a white scar with redness is found. The cause of an ulcer is when a filthy and harmful humour abounds in the body. So too in the soul, ulcers are understood as those things that boil up from unclean desires or filthy thoughts. If perhaps these have been cured through the grace of faith and the remission of sins, and the soul has been made healthy, yet a scar remains; and if that scar does not have the same colour as the body but is whiter, it is declared to be leprosy. For desire is so bright and clear to those who see that it shows signs of the sin still remaining in it even to those who see from afar; and perhaps of a sin such as is unto death; and therefore the scar is described as not only white but also reddish. And as to his saying that the scar itself appears lower, it is certain that a stain of sin of this kind makes the soul low and dejected.