To Be Free to Love

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Father Paul Campbell, LC

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for this time together. I need you in my life and the life of my family. It is easy to let activities overwhelm me so that I lose track of you. You fade into the distance, and sometimes sin grows closer. But I know you are always there for me with your unconditional love. Thank you. I love you and long to put you first in my life.

Petition:Lord, wash me from my sins and help me to be detached from them.

1. If You Choose: A leper approaches and falls before Jesus. “If you choose, you can make me clean.” This leper couldn’t free himself from his disease any more than we can free ourselves from our sin. Leprosy was a fatal disease. It separated a man from his family and drove him outside his village to lonely places. Leprosy is a symbol for sin. Sin separates us from God and from others. We need to approach Jesus with that same humility and trust we see in the leper. This story is for us, to show us Christ’s heart. It reveals his love and his desire to free us from sin. Am I convinced of the ugliness of all sin and how it defaces our souls?

2. I Do Choose: Jesus chose to heal the leper. Not only did he heal him, he touched him. He reached out to the loneliness of that man, and he touched his life to cure him of the disease. This reveals Christ’s heart so beautifully. Our sin never drives him away from us. He is always ready and willing to come to our aid if only we would cry out for his help. Am I capable of opening all of the inner wounds of my sins to Our Lord so that he can heal me, wash me clean and make me whole again?

3. Jesus Wants Us Free: Sin keeps us from being who we were meant to be. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Jesus was free from sin and so was free to love and serve others. He wasn’t compelled by greed or anger. He wasn’t moved by pride or impeded by laziness. He was free to love, and he loved to the extent of dying on a cross. Sin closes us in on ourselves. We get absorbed in ourselves and others take the back seat – or no seat at all. How often do we say “no” to others and turn a blind eye to their needs? Isn’t it sin that blinds us and selfishness that impedes us from loving others as Christ loves us? Christ can free us from sin so that we are empowered to love as he loves.

Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I want to be free, but I need your help. Without you, I can do nothing. Help me to trust you and to turn to you. Don’t let me go off on my own as if I could keep fighting without you. Free me to love you. Free me to love others.

Resolution: I will pray Psalm 51 for myself and my loved ones.

Healing of the leper

by Food For Thought on January 16, 2014 ·

In today’s Gospel Jesus heals a leper. But, who are the lepers of
today? The lepers of today are all those whom we or our society deem
unworthy of our love. Lepers are symbolic of those from whom basic
dignity and respect are withheld.

Today we are more subtle in the ways we prevent people from being part
of the community. We erect barriers that allow us to be separated from
them, all the while maintaining an illusion of moral superiority.
Examples of modern lepers abound. Modern lepers are the elderly whom
our society declares to be obsolete and useless. We reject those who
have had abortions. We shun prostitutes. We find sinners totally
unacceptable. But Jesus always loved sinners with the hope that they
would change. We are continually being challenged to find loving and
creative ways to minister to them. The examples are numerous. Thus the
opportunities to heal and to love are numerous as well.

There is no clearer example of what is required of us than today’s
story of Jesus healing the leper. Jesus is moved with pity. Jesus did
not often heal at a distance. The Gospel tells us that Jesus stretched
out his hand and touched the leper. Jesus risked contamination and
condemnation by his own Jewish people because he knew that real
healing comes through involvement and the willingness to risk touching
others in a caring, loving way. As Jesus did, so we are asked to care
for one another.

Today as we remember the Lord’s love for us, let us keep in mind that
we are all lepers of a sort. We all need to be cleaned and healed.
There is that tremendous need that is met by the tremendous love of
Jesus. Let us go forth and celebrate our cleansing and healing by
ministering to those who need to hear these words: “You are accepted.
You are loved. You are cleansed by love.”