Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

 The readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021124.cfm

In today’s gospel from the evangelist, St. Mark we experience a profound moment of healing and compassion.

A leper, shunned and excluded from day to day life due to his impurity - approaches Jesus.

His physical condition, thought to be a reflection of his unholiness and the sin he had within.

Not only were lepers not welcomed, 

if one of them came near, people would shout out “unclean” 

as a warning to stay away, to shame them and to warn those nearby.

Now, this leper approaches Jesus and says, 

“If you wish, you can make me clean”,

Coming to Jesus filled with humility and hope.

And this leper, marginalized, unclean, viewed as unholy, not worthy of any human contact shows us the boldness of his faith. 

He doesn’t question Jesus' ability to heal him, just his willingness to do so.

And Jesus, moved with pity, 

reaches out and touches the man, saying, 

"I do will it. Be made clean." 

In this simple, yet powerful gesture, 

Jesus not only heals the man's physical ailment 

but also restores his dignity and place in the community. 

The transformative touch of Jesus breaking barriers that separate and isolate.

Now you’re probably asking what Jesus’ healing of this leper has to do with us?

I submit to you that this passage invites us to reflect on how we each approach Jesus. 

How we approach him when we present ourselves for Holy Communion at Mass.

We may not be lepers, but we are human, and we are all sinners.  

If we could see the state of each other’s souls, 

we might see more lesions than this leper had visible on his skin.

We might even shout “unclean” or keep our distance from each other.

Come to think of it, it’s a good thing we can’t see the state of each other’s souls!

Whether we like to admit it or not.  

We are unclean.  We all have sins.

But the question is this -

Do we choose to come to Jesus with the same confidence as the leper, 

believing in Christ’s power to heal and transform our lives? 

With humility and with hope for healing?

The statistics say we don’t.

All of us here come to Holy Mass.

Most of us go to Holy Communion.

But how many of us go to a regular, sacramental confession?

The numbers say, not many.

How many of us approach Jesus within the sacrament of reconciliation with the humility and hope of that leper?

Yearning for Jesus’ healing touch.

To be made well again.  

To be made clean.

To be made worthy of communing with Him.

This miracle of the healing of the leper illustrates perfectly 

the unclean mess and cleansing 

that are made real in the sacrament of reconciliation. 

Where we confess our sins to a priest 

acting in the person of Christ

and we are absolved of our sins through the infinite mercy of God. 

And if we go to Holy Communion regularly, 

knowing we have mortal sin that we have not confessed in the sacrament, 

or if we can’t remember the last time we went to confession, 

We may not realize that our sins compound on each other and grow,

making our uncleanliness even worse.

The healing of the leper by Jesus 

emphasizes Christ’s power to cleanse and heal us spiritually, 

offering new life to each of us through the forgiveness of our sins.

If we only have humility and hope, like the leper, to go to Jesus.

With Lent upon us in a few days, 

it’s the absolutely perfect time for us to acknowledge the unclean in each of us 

and to remember Jesus’ power to restore us to good health.

Maybe it's been a long time since you’ve been to confession.  

Maybe you think your sins are so awful or so embarrassing that you will shock the priest 

Or that he will look at you differently in the future. 

Maybe you’re afraid to face your sins 

and so have told yourself you don't really need to go to confession.

I can promise that no one will point at you and yell, “unclean” 

or try to marginalize you for going to confession.

You just need to go with the humility and hope of the leper St. Mark told us about today, 

And Jesus will make you clean.  

Then like the leper, 

you can tell everyone how you went to Jesus and how great you now feel.

Your testimony might just get them to go to confession 

so Jesus can make them clean too.