"If you will, you can make me clean"

"If you will, you can make me clean"

By REV. FR. ANTHONY IGBEKELE

Scripture 

1st Reading: Heb3:7-14
Resp. Psalm: Ps95:6-11
Gosp. Accl.: Mt4:23
Gospel: Mk1:40-45

The type of faith we should have

The total and unquestioning faith of the leper in the healing powers of our Lord was met by our Lord's pity and love for this unfortunate human being. The leper declared that it was within our Lord's will and pleasure to make him clean and create a new life for him, from life in the shadowy obscurity of the world of the leper to that of one cleansed by none other than the Son of God, the One through whom all things were created in heaven and on earth. Our Lord expressed willingness to meet the faith of the leper. The gospel today declares that "moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him. What is the quality of our faith? Do we believe that there are things God is incapable of doing?

"I will; be clean"

The day for this leper's liberation from the oppression of sin and death had arrived. Our Lord told the leper that He would heal him. He declared by a word of authority: "be clean". The word of God today makes us understand that the leprosy left him immediately and he was made clean. Our Lord then charged him to tell no one but to go to the priests and offer for his cleansing what Moses commanded. Such was the goodness and mercy of the Lord that He did not want the people mistake the accidents for the reality and begin to view the signs He performed as more important thean the message of life He preached to them. The leper, however, disregarded the instruction of the Lord not to make the healing known and talked about it freely. Do we know the depth of the love of the Lord for us? Do we know that even now, the Lord is ready to heal and save us?

"do not harden your hearts"

Hardness of heart is turning away from all that God represents and turning into ourselves to do our own wills and pleasures. It is a total disregard for the sovereign authority of God over our lives and affairs. Hardness of heart leads to turning away from God, which makes one to fall away from the living and true God. The word of God in today's first reading describes it as hardness of heart as a result of the deceitfulness of sin. When we hear and listen to the voice of the Lord, the evil one has no place in our lives and we are free to live our lives totally for God. Do we listen and obey the voice of the Lord our God?

Let us pray

O God our Father, open our hearts and minds to your Son, the word made flesh. Give us the grace to love and serve Him by handing over our lives totally and in an unalloyed way to Him for the greater glory of his holy name. Amen.

May the Living Word of God find a true dwelling place within our hearts and souls today and always.

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