The Lord’s Desire To Make Us Clean and Holy, 12th Friday (I), June 25, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
June 25, 2021
Gen 17:1.9-10,15-22, Ps 128, Mt 8:1-4

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Over the past two-and-a-half weeks at daily Mass, we have been pondering Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, in which he sets forth his standards — and the standards by which he wishes us to live — that surpass that of the Scribes, Pharisees and virtuous pagans. He calls us to be “perfect” (teleios) as his Father in heaven is perfect, to be great by keeping his commandments and teaching others to do the same, to seek first the kingdom of heaven and God’s holiness. He calls us to seek to be, in contrast to the standards and behavior of so many in the world, poor in spirit, compassionate to the point of mourning, meek, merciful, peacemaking, hungry and thirst for holiness, pure of heart, and willing to suffer for the sake of holiness. He calls us to love our enemies, pray for our persecutors, do good to those who are evil, to turn the other cheek, to walk the second mile, to give our cloak when all that’s asked for is our tunic, to not hate and not only not kill, to be chaste in heart and not just continent in the body, to have our yes mean yes and our no mean no, to pray, fast and give alms only for God the Father and not for show, not to worry about what we are to eat, drink or wear but to trust in the Father’s providence, to take out the beams from our own eyes and stop judging, to enter through the narrow gate of life, to do to others what we ourselves wish to be done to us, to become a good tree bearing good fruit and to build our whole life on his word. After hearing all of this, it is understandable that we might feel overwhelmed, as if the standards Jesus is proposing are unreachable. We may recognize just how often, every day, we fall short.
• That’s why in God’s providence, and in the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of St. Matthew, right after the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus makes clear the standards by which Christians are called to live, we have Chapter 8, which features seven different miracles of healing. The first we have today, in which a leper approaches Jesus, kneels down in homage, and humbly asks, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” We can say the same, with similar adoration and trust: “Lord, if you will, you can cleanse me of all of the ways I’ve lived by the standards of the world rather than by yours. If you will, you can give me the help you know I need to become teleios, to become great by keeping and teaching your commandments, to seek first your kingdom, and to base my whole life on the rock of your holy word!” And we have every confidence Jesus will respond like he did to the leper, to all the others who approached him through Chapter 8 and in other scenes in the Gospel, and say, “I do will it! Be made clean!” After hearing God’s wisdom at length, now we encounter God’s healing power to strengthen us to live up to the high standards of ordinary Christian living to which Jesus calls us.
• God’s desire to cleanse us, to make us pure, to fill us with his mercy to overflowing, explains the motivation behind Jesus’ incarnation, his hidden life, his passion, death and resurrection. Jesus’ whole life screams the ardor of God’s hunger to make us clean, to heal us of our words and the leprosy of sin that alienates us from God, others and our truest selves. In the ancient world, leprosy was the worst disease one could have. Not only would it eat away one’s flesh and bones and make one stink in a most disgusting fashion, but it would also cut the leper off from everyone other than fellow lepers. One needed to remain 50 feet away from others, cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” whenever anyone approached. One couldn’t be with one’s family or friends. One couldn’t live in one’s home. Even though there was technically a place for lepers in the synagogue, none would go because of the social stigma and obstacles others would place in their way. It’s a sign of the alienation that can happen to us spiritually through sin, where we begin to cut ourselves off from communion. Jesus comes, however, to restore us. He reaches out, he touches us through the Sacraments, and he renews us like God in touching us at the beginning gave us life. All we need is faith. The leper faithfully and politely asked, “If you wish, you can make me whole,” and Jesus did. St. Josemaria Escriva, whose feast day is tomorrow, said in The Way, his most famous work of spiritual aphorisms, that the prayer of the leper today is a great model for all of us: “Domine! — Lord — si vis, potes me mundare, — if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’ What a beautiful prayer for you to say often, with the faith of the poor leper. …  You will not have to wait long to hear the Master’s reply: ‘Volo, mundare! I will: be thou made clean!’” (142). It is a prayer to be said often because we will often need it. And we should say it with faith.
• We see the Lord’s desire to cleanse us so that we might be faithful to him in today’s first reading with Abraham. He renews his covenant with him here after Abraham, in the previous chapter, capitulated to Sara’s impatient frustration and told him to take Hagar, her servant, as a concubine so that she might conceive a child. They did not trust in God enough to provide at his time. But God gave another chance. He cleansed them. Through the covenant of circumcision, he had Abraham, and all his descendants, consecrate their sexuality to him, to remember that sexuality is part of our fidelity to God and to his promises. God made Abraham and Sarah whole. He forgave and cleansed them. And soon thereafter Sarah herself conceived and became the mother of many nations. God has similarly restored us to his covenant through the Sacrament of Penance, when he brings our souls back to their baptismal purity and helps us to appreciate ever more who he is in his mercy. He does will us to be made clean and confession makes that will efficacious.
• Every Mass we come to meet Jesus with the faith of that poor leper. We begin by confessing how much we need cleansing of our thoughts, words, and actions, and we turn to him, the Lamb of God, and beg him to have mercy on us and take away our sins. We echo the prayer of the Leper when we say, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” And Jesus responds each day, saying the word, “I do will it. Be made clean!”

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download