In today’s Gospel reading we hear of a leper being healed by
Jesus. There were so many rabbis at that
time in Israel. It they couldn’t cure
this man, why could Jesus, he was just another rabbi, right? Even though he has begun his ministry at
Cana, he is still unknown to his disciples.
This man who has leprosy approaches Jesus and says, “If you wish, you
can make me clean.” These words are
filled with faith. They are like the
faith filled words that we use during mass, “Lord, I am not worthy that you
should come under my roof, say the word and I shall be healed.”
Jesus heals the leper.
He frees him from the hell in which he has been living. He frees him from both the physical marks of
leprosy that plague his body, but he also heals the man’s spirit. We can imagine this man filled with abundant
joy and it is contagious as he goes to the priests. He is a witness to the power of Christ. God himself has touched him, forgiven him, and
restored life to him by raising him from the death of sin. Jesus in a sense is teaching us a lesson
about heaven and hell, about mercy, about how to be happy. We are to come to the Lord and in him with
the light of faith we will find happiness.
How did Jesus do this?
St. Hilary of
Poitiers reminds us, “For He (Jesus) took upon Him the flesh in which we have
sinned that by wearing our flesh He might forgive sins; a flesh which He shares
with us by wearing it, not by sinning in it. He blotted out through death the
sentence of death, that by a new creation of our race in Himself He might sweep
away the penalty appointed by the former Law. He let them nail Him to the cross
that He might nail to the curse of the cross and abolish all the curses to
which the world is condemned.”
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