Jesus heals the Leper MK 1:40-45
“Here I am Lord if it is your will, heal me.”
Jesus was approached by a leper who knelt down before him and begged him by telling him that all Jesus needed to do is to wish it and he will be healed. During the time of Jesus, if someone had leprosy such a person would be considered an outcast. According to their laws, they would be perceived as sinners, and because of their sin their punishment was sent from God; lepers were completely ostracized.
Jesus moved by pity stretched out his hand, touched him, and said “I do will it.” So the leper was healed. He warned the him not to tell anyone about his healing. That he should just go to the temple and show himself to the priest, offer his cleansing according to what Moses had prescribed, which should be enough proof for the priests to render him as clean.
Now, we would think that Jesus would want everyone to know about the miracle of the leper being healed. Our logic tells us that the more people knew about him the more would follow him. But our Lord knew that publicity over such miracles might get in the way of His mission which would remove public attention from His message. He feared that his true meaning of salvation will be diluted by a focus only on these spectacular cures, obscuring the deeper call to holiness and redemption; The people were seeking miracles but not necessarily transformation.
That is exactly what happened. Because of the man’s excitement over his being miraculously healed, he did what anyone of us would have done. He went and openly told as many as he could. As a result of all the commotion that was caused, Jesus had to move His ministry away from the city and into the desert regions, because he could no longer enter a town openly without being mobbed by the crowds, so he stayed outside the towns and in lonely places. Regardless, the people still came to Him from everywhere seeking mostly physical healing.
Our Lord did not want people focusing on the miracles He accomplished; he did not want attention placed only on the physical healing that he performed. He much rather the attention be placed on the message that He proclaimed and on the purpose of the death He was going to endure.
The same holds true today. God would rather that we focus on the healing miracle of salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ rather than focusing on the physical healings and miracles. He prefers our focus to be placed on the fact that we are sinners in need of his redemption. That we must acknowledge sin, confess sin, and be healed from it.
We place our attention on our present form of life. Leprosy to this day still exists in certain areas of our world but is not as prevalent in our society as sin. Sin has existed in our human history and still is quite prevalent today. So for the sake of our analogy let’s take leprosy and replace it with sin for the purpose of this explanation. We may have arrived at a point where we see sin as subjective. What I consider sin is not considered sin by the person next to me; we measure sin at the discretion of society, social media and other worldly factors. If it feels good or everyone is sinning, then it must not be a sin.
Our God has given us the perfect manual that contains the definition of sin The Ten Commandments. Our Church also has given us a guideline of what sin is, The Catechism of the Catholic Church. We must not allow to be misguided and return to the basics of what our Church teaches, before sin,…..the leprosy of our times,……may lead us away from our salvation.
As we prepare the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are invited to pay attention to what occurs before consecration. A procession to bring the gifts to the altar begins; we bring the bread, the wine, the prayer book and what else do we bring? How do the gifts arrive at the altar? The gifts are brought to the altar by parishioners attending Holy Mass; parishioners bring the gifts representing each one of us as we participate in the preparation for communion to receive our Lord Jesus Christ in flesh and blood. And just like the leper who came before the priests to show that he had been cleansed, we too should be ready to surrender to Jesus and ask him.
“Cleanse and prepare me oh Lord so that I may become a tabernacle worthy of receiving your true body and true blood. For it is in your Eucharist that I am truly reconciled with you.”
“Here I am Lord if it is your will, heal me.”
“Here I am Lord if it is your will, heal me.”
Jesus was approached by a leper who knelt down before him and begged him by telling him that all Jesus needed to do is to wish it and he will be healed. During the time of Jesus, if someone had leprosy such a person would be considered an outcast. According to their laws, they would be perceived as sinners, and because of their sin their punishment was sent from God; lepers were completely ostracized.
Jesus moved by pity stretched out his hand, touched him, and said “I do will it.” So the leper was healed. He warned the him not to tell anyone about his healing. That he should just go to the temple and show himself to the priest, offer his cleansing according to what Moses had prescribed, which should be enough proof for the priests to render him as clean.
Now, we would think that Jesus would want everyone to know about the miracle of the leper being healed. Our logic tells us that the more people knew about him the more would follow him. But our Lord knew that publicity over such miracles might get in the way of His mission which would remove public attention from His message. He feared that his true meaning of salvation will be diluted by a focus only on these spectacular cures, obscuring the deeper call to holiness and redemption; The people were seeking miracles but not necessarily transformation.
That is exactly what happened. Because of the man’s excitement over his being miraculously healed, he did what anyone of us would have done. He went and openly told as many as he could. As a result of all the commotion that was caused, Jesus had to move His ministry away from the city and into the desert regions, because he could no longer enter a town openly without being mobbed by the crowds, so he stayed outside the towns and in lonely places. Regardless, the people still came to Him from everywhere seeking mostly physical healing.
Our Lord did not want people focusing on the miracles He accomplished; he did not want attention placed only on the physical healing that he performed. He much rather the attention be placed on the message that He proclaimed and on the purpose of the death He was going to endure.
The same holds true today. God would rather that we focus on the healing miracle of salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ rather than focusing on the physical healings and miracles. He prefers our focus to be placed on the fact that we are sinners in need of his redemption. That we must acknowledge sin, confess sin, and be healed from it.
We place our attention on our present form of life. Leprosy to this day still exists in certain areas of our world but is not as prevalent in our society as sin. Sin has existed in our human history and still is quite prevalent today. So for the sake of our analogy let’s take leprosy and replace it with sin for the purpose of this explanation. We may have arrived at a point where we see sin as subjective. What I consider sin is not considered sin by the person next to me; we measure sin at the discretion of society, social media and other worldly factors. If it feels good or everyone is sinning, then it must not be a sin.
Our God has given us the perfect manual that contains the definition of sin The Ten Commandments. Our Church also has given us a guideline of what sin is, The Catechism of the Catholic Church. We must not allow to be misguided and return to the basics of what our Church teaches, before sin,…..the leprosy of our times,……may lead us away from our salvation.
As we prepare the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are invited to pay attention to what occurs before consecration. A procession to bring the gifts to the altar begins; we bring the bread, the wine, the prayer book and what else do we bring? How do the gifts arrive at the altar? The gifts are brought to the altar by parishioners attending Holy Mass; parishioners bring the gifts representing each one of us as we participate in the preparation for communion to receive our Lord Jesus Christ in flesh and blood. And just like the leper who came before the priests to show that he had been cleansed, we too should be ready to surrender to Jesus and ask him.
“Cleanse and prepare me oh Lord so that I may become a tabernacle worthy of receiving your true body and true blood. For it is in your Eucharist that I am truly reconciled with you.”
“Here I am Lord if it is your will, heal me.”
