Religion really isn't my thing. I tend to believe, however, that people like Jesus and Buddha were exceptions to the rule that we all have mental illness to some extent. They were exceptions to the rule and they were the ones most completely rejected. At least Buddha got to die in old age of food poisoning rather than hours of literal torture, and the guy who gave him bad food didn't mean to. Getting back to the rest of us, it can be an unpleasant reminder to see in other people what we dislike about ourselves. If we didn't have a touch of something on the inside it wouldn't bother us to see it around us. It has resonance. Or maybe you could just say it has a triggering effect.

For what it is worth, though, leprosy is still the actual modern day leprosy. It isn't gone yet.