I Do Will It. Be Cleansed

Written by BPNews Team | 05 February 2012

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Green) Cycle B, Year II (February 12, 2012)
Lv 13:1-2, 44-46/1Cor 10:31-11:1/Mk 1:40-45

If there is a sickness that concretely manifests the evil of sin, it is none other than leprosy. Leprosy is a very repulsive disease especially during the times of Jesus Christ when the leper was regarded with more terror and pity than any other sick people. The leper’s body decays while he is still alive; the odor of his body is disgusting and his sickness can infect others. For these reasons, the leper, during the times of Jesus Christ when there was yet no available medicine that could cure it, was rejected by the people and was excommunicated from the Jewish society. There were rules prohibiting the leper to have a physical contact or even communication with the healthy people and vice versa. 

The leper in this Sunday’s gospel did not observe and then broke such prohibition. He went to Jesus Christ and asked for His help, saying: “If you are willing, you can cleanse me” (Mk 1:40). In the same way, Jesus Christ broke the same prohibition and He touched the leper saying to him: “I am willing. Be cleansed” (Mk 1:41). Jesus Christ and the leper broke the human law in order to observe the divine law which was to love the neighbor as one loved oneself. More than that, the leper broke the human law also to observe the divine law which was to love God above all else. He went to Jesus Christ and pleaded to Him on his knees. In other words, the leper prayed sincerely to Jesus. In fact, it was because of the prayer to and faith in Jesus Christ of the leper that Jesus cured the leper. 

Nowadays, physical leprosy is almost gone because of the modern medication but the spiritual leprosy persists. There are people who commit, without feeling any guilt, grave and mortal sins such as fornication, adultery, homosexual acts, prostitution, contraception, abortion, corruption, injustice, abuse, illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal gambling, genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy, taking drugs and others. Being mortal sins, they separate us from a loving relationship with God and with fellow men. Mortal sins naturally excommunicate us from the communion of love and grace in the Church. 

However, sin is not the end of everything. Jesus Christ touched the leper and the leper was cured. Jesus Christ also comes to us and touches us to heal us of our sinfulness and to restore us to grace especially through the Sacrament of Confession. Like the leper, we need only to go to a Catholic priest, plead Christ on our knees to forgive us of our sinfulness through our confession of sins to the priest. Jesus Christ is always ready to forgive us of our sins through the absolution given to us by the priest at the end of the Sacramental Confession. 

Examining our conscience, we can never deny the fact that we are lepers in one way or another. We need to touch Jesus and be touched by Him for us to be forgiven and be reconciled with God and with our brethren. We can touch Jesus through our personal prayers, the Holy Eucharist and the charitable activities we do for the needy; and Jesus can also touch us through those things and especially through the Sacrament of Confession. May we accept the truth that we need God’s mercy and forgiveness and then avail of the love of God through the Sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.