💖 HOMILY - JUNE 30 💖

First Reading - Genesis 17:9-10,15-22

Gospel - Matthew 8:1-4

Today’s Gospel describes Jesus healing a leper as soon as he had finished his Sermon on the Mount and come down the mountain. In those days, all skin diseases were considered leprosy, and leprosy was known to be highly contagious. Hence “lepers” were separated from their families and society and considered ritually unclean. In addition, they were treated as sinners who had been punished by God with a contagious disease. The punishment given to Miriam, the complaining sister of Moses (Nm 12:9-10), to Gehazi the greedy servant of the prophet Elisha (II Kgs 5: 27) and to the proud king Uzziah (Chr 26:19) supported this Jewish belief. As a general rule, when a Jewish leper was healed (from any of the skin diseases considered as leprosy), he had to go to the local priest to have him confirm that the healed one was now clean and was permitted to mix with the general public.

Jesus rewards the trusting Faith of a humble leper. It is such a leper who has the courage to approach Jesus in public with trusting Faith in Jesus’ power to heal him. In all humility he kneels down and says to Jesus, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus violates the social taboo against touching a leper, and He heals the leper by a single command, “I will; be clean.”

Dear friends, we all need healing from our spiritual leprosy. Although we may not suffer from physical leprosy, we all suffer from the “spiritual leprosy” of sins. It is sin that we carry with us that keeps us unclean. Jesus, our Savior, wants to heal us. Since Jesus is not afraid to touch our deepest impurities, and knows all of them better than we do, let us not try to hide them, nor fear to confess them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Just as the lepers cried out to Jesus for healing, let us also ask Jesus every night before we go to sleep to heal us from the spiritual leprosy of sins, and let us approach Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation whenever we are in grave sin.