June 28, 2024
(St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr)
The leper approached Jesus, 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. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” Mt_8:1-4
That “gift” was described, along with a very long and complicated procedure for blessing the healed person with a skin disease in the Book of Leviticus_14:1-20. “If the priest, upon inspection, finds that the scaly infection has healed in the afflicted person, he shall order that two live, clean birds, as well as some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be obtained for the one who is to be purified.” Lv_14:3-4
Rites of atonement to God for human inequities were pretty extreme in the days of Moses. And those inequities were not only sins of misdoing, but illnesses that were not understood, such as leprosy. Today our sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance is pretty mild, comparatively. And the point was, that if the atonement was significant enough, it was possible that the trauma of the ritual would incite the sinner to never commit that sin again. John’s baptism of repentance was not a pretty little water dipping, it was a drowning, a death to evil and a new life – in breath and healing.
If healing is something we would like, beloved, we must first ask if it be God’s will. Maybe the suffering is something we need to learn through. What might we be missing that should be cleansed first? Jesus was looking for faith. And the lepers and blind and lame who asked Jesus’ healing had the faith that He was able to heal them. They believed in His divinity. And so He sent them off to perform the ritual of the Jewish law. To prove to the Jewish authorities that they were not heretics to the Jewish faith, but that Jesus was a part of that faith as well.
As baptized Christians, beloved, we are also a part of that same faith. It is our history, just as it is the history of Jesus and Moses and Abraham and Noah and Seth and Adam. We are all God’s Creation, His handiwork through Jesus and with the Holy Spirit! Blessed be our God, who is God, even of those who refuse to acknowledge Him. And for them, we pray!
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Whispers to the Wind 