The Hand of God

“After a full day of preaching or healing, Jesus retreats to bed, then rises before dawn to slip away into the wilderness to pray.

He leaves with us a model that clearly shows that our active ministries depend upon prayer. What we accomplish in a busy day may depend on what we do early in the morning. By surrendering to God first, we are acknowledging that any good we accomplish is only flowing through us. This frees us from any notion that we, ourselves, are the source. For the people of Galilee, the many healings performed by Jesus in and around Capernaum in today’s Gospel, could only come from the hand of God.” (Preaching Resources, Feb. 15, 2009)

Jesus Heals Us!

“According to some Fathers of the Church, one reason Jesus promptly responded to the leper’s cry in today’s Gospel story, ignoring the Mosaic Law prohibiting touching a leper and thus becoming ritually unclean, is that he identified himself with the man’s condition. Jesus dramatically identified himself with the sufferer in the total rejection and isolation waiting for him. The irony here is that Jesus risked becoming “unclean” himself in order to make the leper clean. Just as he stretched out his hand to the leper and touched him and made him whole, Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross to make us whole. He touched the leper, thus bridging the gap between what is clean and what is unclean, identifying himself with all lepers, with all who are ritually or socially unclean and isolated and with all of us sinners who are spiritually unclean and have no way to change our condition except through his sacrifice and mercy. Thus, he became “unclean” in the eyes of the law that we might be made clean. He allowed himself to be rejected by his family and people so that those who are separated from God might return to him and be healed.”

“The Gospel today is a story about how we treat others on the basis of appearance – both real and supposed. In our society, looks aren’t everything. They are the only thing! No wonder if we get feelings of inferiority, looking at all those young, attractive and trim models and superstars in magazines and on TV commercials. As a result, we make rash judgments with far-reaching consequences, making people outcasts in the society. For example, who can live down an accusation of child abuse? Who can really live a normal life in the community if he or she is known to be HIV positive? Who can really walk about as one of us in this age of the war against terrorism if he/she comes from the wrong ethnic group, wears the wrong clothes, or has the wrong skin color? In today’s Gospel story Jesus challenges us to accept others unconditionally as our own brothers and sisters. Jesus reaches out to touch us in this very Eucharistic celebration, making us whole and restoring our relationship with him and with one another. Then he grants us a share in his divine life through the Holy Communion.”

“We are forgiven and made spiritually clean from the spiritual leprosy of sins when we repent of our sins. This is because God is a God of love who waits patiently for us. No matter how many sins we have committed or how badly we have behaved, we know God forgives us. The only condition required of us is that we ask for forgiveness with a repentant heart. We need only kneel before him and ask him, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ We are sure to hear his words of absolution, “Very well—your sins are forgiven and you are clean” echoed in the sacrament of reconciliation.” - Fr. Tony Homilies