“Unclean,
unclean!” From today’s first Scripture
reading, the leper must cry out:
“Unclean, unclean.” The leper not
only lives with his disease, the leper must also live an isolated, separated
life cut off from the community.
In contrast
to living with this stigma and separation from society, the leper in the Gospel
account came to Jesus, begging on his knees, saying, “If you wish, you can make
me clean.” Jesus responds, “I do
wish. Be made clean.”
Could there
have been more perfect scriptures to prepare ourselves for our Lenten journey? For each of us, if we honestly look at our
inmost hearts and daily lives, must confess at least something, like the
Gospel’s leper, that needs to be made clean.
And to each of us, may we hear the words of Jesus spoken to the Gospel
leper, “I do will it. Be made clean.”
Today’s
Gospel prepares us for our Lenten journey of 40 days. We begin this Wednesday with ashes marked on
our foreheads. The words spoken to us as
we receive these ashes are: “Repent and
believe the Gospel.” With these ashes,
we acknowledge that we belong to the order of penitents. We stand in need of the Lord’s healing
forgiveness. In our Lenten journey, we
embrace the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and alms giving. In turning from sin, we seek the conversion
experience of placing God first in our lives.
But to
prepare ourselves, we begin during this Lenten season by acknowledging our own
leprosy that separates us from a fuller experience of God’s love in our
lives. In this Lenten season, may we
celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a grace-filled way. I like to think of this beautiful sacrament
as whispering into the ears of our merciful and compassionate God the story of
our life. Then the words of Jesus are spoken
to us: “I do will it. Be made clean.”
Our leprosy
is the sinfulness of our lives that separates us from God’s love. In our Lenten journey, indeed may we turn
away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.
As we pray
over this Gospel, we also need to reflect on our attitudes on the people in our
lives whom we find undesirable – as lepers in the sense we don’t want anything
to do with them. We want to keep then
separated from us.
We live in a world of suffering: suffering caused by
diseases, suffering caused by the exclusion of people, suffering caused by
greed and jealousy. But rather than just say that is ‘the lot of humanity’ we
look towards Jesus as the one who brings healing, who welcomes people into his
embrace, and who proclaims a new way of living. To belong to this community is
to recognize the mystery of God’s forgiveness and healing made visible to us in
Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Mother
Theresa said: “The biggest disease is
not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the disease of being unwanted.” Leprosy was the most dreaded of all diseases
at that time because it separated people from their family and their community
and thus constituted a “living death.”
We need
first to do an inventory to see if there are folks who would feel unwelcome in
our Church? Who, if they walked in our
door this minute, would feel the questioning stares of others?
We ask God
humbly for the grace to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to reach out to
those whom society treats as lepers.
This weekend
is the Diocese of Rochester Public Policy Weekend. We invite you to take a moment after Mass to
sign the petition we have available which calls on the U.S. Congress to pass
the Dream Act. This petition has the
support of Bishop Matano and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. We believe in the sacredness of the human
person and in protecting the life and dignity of every human being.
The young
people affected by the Dream Act, who were brought to the United States as
children, are contributors to our economy, academic standouts in our
universities, and leaders in our parishes.
The Dream Act will provide an opportunity for legal permanent residence
with a pathway to citizenship for those who can fulfill specific legal
conditions.
Please God
we do not see these children as lepers, so to speak, that need to be separated
from us in our society. May we see these
dreamers as our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. They need and deserve our love and welcome.
To the
extent that we are judgmental and prejudge others, whether they are immigrants
whom we consider undesirables, whether their sexuality is different than ours,
whether their way of looking at religion is different than ours, we are in need
of Christ’s healing touch. We need to be
able to see Christ in others, to have Christ’s compassion for the powerless,
the poor, the hurting in mind, body, and spirit. We need to get to the place where we are able
to “kiss the leper” of our day.
May we see
ourselves as a Church that is a hospital for sinners, rather than a hotel for
saints. We all need healing. That is what the ashes on our foreheads this Ash
Wednesday signify.
Today we remind ourselves that Jesus entered into this
suffering world bringing healing and peace, and that he has called us to carry
on this work of reconciling people to one another and to the Father. Put
bluntly, if we want to gather here as sisters and brothers – and that is the
condition of taking part in the Eucharist –then we have to be individuals who
bring healing and forgiveness to all those we encounter.
Have a blessed day.
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