"If you wish, you can
make me clean." Mk 1:40
Jesus brings
healing of both body and soul to His people. By healing the body, Jesus shows
the people that He holds the power to heal the soul from sin. When Jesus heals
the leper in today’s Gospel story, He is not only healing the disease, but also
bringing the man back into community. Lepers were outcasts, in accord with the
law. Now, by the mercy of Christ, those who were considered unclean under the
law are cleansed and their place in the community restored.
We, who
experience sickness and brokenness in our bodies and are sinful and unclean in
our souls, hunger for the healing that Jesus brings. And, like the crowds of
people in the Gospel stories, we are drawn to Jesus, the source and fount of
life and hope. If you seek Jesus in
faith, searching even in the hidden places of the desert, you will find Him. If
you believe that He has the power to heal you, just stretch out your hand and
you will find He has already done it. Trust in His mercy, confess your sins,
and you will be made clean.
God has shown His
great love for us by coming to dwell among us in the flesh, suffering the pains
of death to bring us salvation and show us how to live. When we experience the
healing that Jesus brings, we, like Paul, must become imitators of Christ. We are
called to bring the message of God’s mercy to our little part of the world, so
that many others may be saved.
When Jesus walked
the earth, He sometimes grew tired, and I wonder if that was why He asked the
man not to tell anyone about the healing. In any event, I hope Jesus wasn’t too
upset that the man failed to obey Him, because by publicizing the matter, many
others were drawn to seek Jesus out. Jesus, having won the victory over sin and
death, no longer grows weary but is present with us always, and in His great
mercy, takes pity on us and heals all our ills.
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