"I will do it. Be made clean."

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
"I will do it. Be made clean."

His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Life in the time of Jesus was hard and while the Jews enjoyed many "modern" benefits and thanks to the religious rules they followed were healthier than the population at large there was still the scourge of leprosy that had to be dealt with.  Five percent of the people contracted the disease.  Ounce you were diagnosed with the malady you did not receive medicines and sympathy, no, you received banishment and shunning.  So, this bacteria was an agent of change in a person's life.  Once infected you left your family and friends and you had to depend on others for help.  The disease is not particularly contagious but can be spread by contact with the skin or a cough but this is exceedingly rare.  It is related to the tuberculosis bacteria which also was endemic during the period.  Leprosy is thought of a skin disease but it is more of a disease of the nerves.  The bacillus attacks the nerves and destroys the patient's ability to feel pain.  One modern leper, Father Damien who served the lepers in Hawaii discovered that he had contracted the disease when by accident he stepped into a pot of boiling water and felt no pain.  The disease does not kill, it just disfigures and desensitizes. 

So, in the time of Jesus, lepers were shunned.  They were to keep away from the population and stay with their own kind. Should a leper see a group of people approaching he was to ring a bell to catch the attention of the people and yell, "Unclean, Unclean!" so that the walkers could make their way around them.  They were shunned too because their affliction was seen to be a punishment from God for sins that they had committed. So in our reading today a couple of things jump out.  First, this leper disobeyed the first rule of being a leper, he approached a crowd of "clean" people. Jesus too broke a rule, he touched the leper, technically making himself unclean until sundown.  But Jesus was known to not always follow the common every-day rules.  The leper, displaying his faith in Jesus says that if Jesus' wills it then the leper could be cured.  Jesus, using the faith of the man, said that He did will it and the leper was cured on the spot. 

Sin is an awful lot like leprosy.  It starts small and can grow until it affects the whole person. It also resembles leprosy in that as it takes hold, we become less sensitive to the consequences of our actions until we develop a full blown infection and we walk away from God.  It may take some time before we realize what we have done to ourselves and how injured we really are.  When we do realize that we are infected, that we are unclean, we can always turn to the Lord and He will cure us of our ills. 

We Catholics are very fortunate indeed.  We have a sacrament where we can be absolutely and positively certain that our confessed sins have been forgiven by the Lord and His Church.  It is a shame that so many fail to take advantage of this Sacrament that the Protestants neither have nor do they understand.  In the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation, as it is also called, we experience first hand the mercy and love of Jesus as He, through his minister, welcomes us home.  When the priest extends his hand and utters the words of absolution no magic takes place, only healing and forgiveness.  Take a moment and ask yourself why you are so reluctant to go to confession?   If the last time you went was twenty years ago, so what!  The Gospel does not say how long the Prodigal Son was away from home, it only states that he came home and his father threw him a welcome home party.  Jesus already knows your sins, whatever you confess will not be a surprise to Him.  What confession does is it allows you to honestly look at yourself and to get the help that you need to live a happier life here on earth and to become closer to the Lord so that you can live with Him forever in Heaven.  

Lent - Broken Hearts Mended Here

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;

and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

There is no pain greater than a broken heart. When something touches us so deeply, to our innermost core, the pain can be more debilitating than a physical injury.  Break a leg, and in a matter of weeks, it is healed.  Break a heart, and the injury can last for the rest of your life! 

The hardest part about dealing with a broken heart, at least for me, is the feeling that no one understands the pain you are going through. Even your best friend may tell you to "toughen up and work through it."  The advice is well-meaning but hard to implement. 

We all have suffered a broken heart at one time or another in our lives. Each of us has felt that pain that turns into an ache that does not want to go away.  Some of us embark on a regimen of self-treatment. We look for answers in drugs or alcohol.  Some of us try to heal ourselves by trying to forget by keeping permanently busy in mind and body so we do not have to think about it. This works right up until the time we stop for a moment to rest. It is then that all of the bad feelings come flooding back in.  To deal with a broken heart by doing nothing at all is perhaps the most dangerous thing you can do.  A broken heart never mends through inaction.  

There is a sure cure for a broken heart. To cure a broken heart in the quickest amount of time possible you have to lay the burden down and ask someone stronger to pick it up for you.  There is only one person that can do this astounding feat.  This person is, of course, the Lord.  He is no stranger to a broken heart.  He knows what it is to be disappointed in those he loves.  He knows what it feels like to give His all, only to be rejected by us as we walk away.  I believe that the physical pain of the cross was not as bad as the thoughts that must of went through the mind of Jesus as he hung there. In the Garden, the previous night he sweated blood. So, if you ever need a friend who knows what a broken heart feels like, turn to Jesus, turn to God.  In Him, you will find a friend forever.  In Him, you will find healing for the hurts of life, especially the hurts that break your heart. It will take time but after all, it is better to walk the road of pain with a willing companion.  That willing companion is Jesus who will heal your broken heart. 

Reconciliation With God and Man -

I went to confession this last Wednesday. 
My spirit always feels so much better and I feel so much more alive once experience this great gift of God's love for us. This sacrament seems to have fallen out of favor for some of my fellow Catholics and I feel sorry for them because they don't know what they are missing.  There are all sorts of reasons people do not go.  Let's talk about some of them and see how they stack up.

"I go straight to Jesus for forgiveness, I don't have to tell a priest my sins. Jesus forgives me." 

On the surface this sounds real good and is very convincing but it is not what Jesus has in mind for his followers. How do we know this? First of all Jesus gave the power to the Apostles to forgive sin. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...and later "As the Father has sent me even so I send you, And when he said this he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any they are retained. (John 20: 21-23) We also read in Matthew, "Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt 18:18) 

That we are to confess verbally is clearly implied because how were the Apostles to know which sins they were going to forgive or not forgive unless they were told about them? 

What advantages are there in confessing aloud to a priest? The following has been harvested from an article on Catholic Answers. Click the link to read the whole article (LINK) 

1. First he seeks forgiveness the way Christ intended. 
2. By confessing to a priest, the Catholic learns a lesson in humility, which is avoided when one confesses through private prayer.
3. The Catholic receives sacramental graces that the non-Catholic does not get - through the sacrament of penance sins are forgiven and the graces are obtained. 
4.  The Catholic is assured his sins are forgiven and he does not have to rely on a subjective feeling.
5.  The Catholic can receive sound advice in avoiding sin in the future.

This assurance that I have been forgiven by God AND his Church which encompasses all believers, both those in full communion with the Church, my fellow Catholics and those brothers and sisters that are either not in communion with the Church but are brothers and sisters because of our common brother in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our savior. 

Some Catholics have not been to confession in years. Some not for 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years or longer. Being away from this great sacrament for so long causes a person to be greatly afraid as to what will happen to them if they tell a priest they have been away for so long. They envision hearing a gasp of horror from the priest and imagine hearing a long demeaning lecture.  

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!!  

Don't you remember what scripture says that there is more rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than over 99 that did not have to repent?  Be honest with the priest, tell him how long you have been away, don't remember what to say? Father will help you. He will make it as easy for you as possible. The first step is yours. You have to go into that confession room, you have to take the first step.  After that it gets easy. The Holy Spirit brought you to this place, God already knows all of your sins, all you have to do is to face up to them and to confess them, be sorry for them, and try your best not to commit them again.  Don't be afraid, the Grace of God awaits you in confession. Take advantage of it. 

God bless you today and as we prepare to enter into Holy Week, remember God loves you more than you can imagine. He loves you just as you are and wants you to take advantage of the sacrament of confession and become closer and closer and closer to Him.  Peace!