If you wish, you can make me clean!
Homily originally presented February 14, 2021
by Monsignor Deering

As you and I grow older ... we’re likely to have the need

to call upon more and more Doctors to help us with our health.

When we’re young, we normally need the help of just two doctors ...

a Dentist and a Pediatrician.

Yes, Mom & Dad take us to a Dentist twice a year to keep our teeth healthy.

and they take us to a Doctor to get prescriptions for coughs & colds & sore throats.  

If you play sports in school, then you normally get an annual Physical exam

just to certify that you are well enough to compete.

And that was pretty much it ... for years ... a General Practitioner and a Dentist.

But if you got injured in sports, you probably had the need for X-Rays and MRI’s and the care of an Orthopedic Doctor.

With this visual world of ours, most people have to go to the Eye Doctor to get Glasses or Contact Lenses to improve their vision.

For those of us who thought the Sun was our friend in the 70’s ...

we’re having to go to Dermatologists to care for damage done to our skin.

For those who have hearing loss, they go to an Audiologist Doctor.

For those who have Circulatory problems, they go to a Heart Doctor.

For those who have Respiratory problems, they go to a Lung Doctor.

And it goes on and on and on ...  when we humans experience sickness or injury or lose our faculties with age ... we can fortunately reach out to Doctors for help ...  

Diet Doctors, Kidney Doctors, Fertility Doctors, Maternity Doctors, Brain Doctors and many more specialists ... to help us reclaim good health for our bodies.

What do we do when our bodies get sick or injured?

We call upon our Medical Doctors ... our Doctors of the Body.

Well, there’s another Doctor we must not forget about ...

one who brings us great remedy ...

one who many of us have been calling upon since we were in 2^nd Grade ... His name is Jesus ... He is the Doctor of the Soul. He is the one that our Parents, our Priests and our Teachers have told us to go to when our souls get sick with sin.

Being made in the image and likeness of God, we too have a triune nature ...

we are a unity of Body and Mind and Soul.

During our lives, all three of these dimensions can suffer sickness ...

so it’s important to know where we can go to find remedy.

For our Body and Mind, God has blessed many men and women with the knowledge and skill to bring physical and mental healing to people.

For our Soul, God has given us His Son Jesus, the Eternal High Priest ...

    to bring spiritual healing to people.

Now, even though Jesus would love to hear from us all the time,

the reality is that many people never turn to Him until they need something ...

and very often ... it’s when the something they need is ... a Physical Healing.

In the Psalm Response we just prayed 5 times we said:

“I turn to you, Lord, in times of trouble and you fill me with the joy of salvation.”

If you’ve ever had pimples as a teenager, or a cold sore on your lip,

or a sty in your eye, or a shaving cut, or stitches on your head or your hands,

you probably wanted it to get better as quick as possible.

Having unwanted marks on your face can make you very self-conscious.

You don’t want them there because they disfigure your appearance and

you find yourself willing to do whatever it takes to cover them & get rid of them.

Having a blemish or a wound or a sore ... anywhere else on our body isn’t as bad because we can hide it with our clothes, but having a blemish right out there where people can see it, moves us to seek speedy help to remedy the defect.

We hear about skin defects in two of our readings today.

In both the Old Testament book of Leviticus and the New Testament Gospel of Mark

we hear of the dreaded skin disease of leprosy.

Leprosy is a highly contagious and disfiguring disease for which there is no cure. 

God’s instruction to the Chosen People under the Old Covenant with Moses was

to go and show themselves to the Levitical Priest because

the Priest had the responsibility to declare the person either clean or unclean.

People went to the Priest ... not for a cure ... just for a diagnosis!

All he could do was to judge whether they were clean or unclean ... and if unclean,

send them off to a place ... not where they would be healed ...

but where they would remain separated and unclean!

Scripture said today, "The one who bears the sore of leprosy ... shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp." How sad! No cure ... just separation ... forever.

Now compare that to our Gospel reading,

where a man with Leprosy ... goes to Jesus ... and was healed instantly!

You see, the Priests of the Old Covenant didn’t have the power to heal the disease, but Jesus, the eternal High Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant, definitely did! And Jesus used His power to cure the disease with his touch.

Mark tells us,       “moved with pity, (Jesus) stretched out his hand

    and touched (the leper, (and) immediately … he was made clean.” 

Who would do that?

Who would reach out and touch someone with a highly contagious disease?

It would have to be someone with a deep love for the unclean person …

someone who was more intent on bringing remedy than on concern for himself.

This was beautifully portrayed in the movie classic, Ben-Hur ...

where Charlton Heston’s mother and sister both developed leprosy when they were unjustly put in prison for years and then banished to the Valley of the Lepers.

When Charlton Heston found this out, he went right into the caves looking for them until he found them.  Then he picked up his sister and carried her out in his arms.

Why would he do that?     Love!

Love made him more intent on getting her help than on keeping himself clean.

As Ben-Hur enters the city of Jerusalem, he comes upon Jesus, who has fallen while carrying his cross on the way to Calvary. Ben-Hur sets his sister down and brings Jesus a cup of water, and Jesus touches his hands to receive it.

In the final scene, we see Ben-Hur’s Mother & Sister, Miriam and Tearsa are miraculously healed of their Leprosy … healed by the power of Jesus … who touched them through the loving touch of Ben-Hur offering water to Jesus!

Throughout the Gospels we hear how Jesus reached out and touched the sick and made them well. He did it out of love. He did it when people trusted in His power.

Jesus, the Eternal High Priest has the power to make us well in every way.

Unlike the Priests of the Old Covenant, who were powerless to heal,

Jesus freely dispenses His healing power to all who approach Him.

In our Gospel today, the Leper came to Jesus because he trusted in His power.

He said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

Jesus responded, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

And it was done! His uncleanness was immediately made clean.

It’s this power of Jesus to make the unclean clean that we need to tap into often.

You see, all of us are unclean ... in various degrees ... in our souls!

Yes, all of us are sinners, who have varying degrees of selfishness, pride, and self-love that makes us less than reflective of God’s goodness and beauty.

Now if the blemishes on our soul were visible to others ...

then we’d be as anxious to remove them as if they were a blemish on our face!

And we’d want to know the treatment that would help us remain clean!

But, because the condition of our souls is hidden from others,

we’re often less urgent about getting them healed ...

like we are with the blemishes we can cover by our clothes.

Well, Wisdom should move us to seek remedy for all sins on our soul ...

because while they may not be visible to other people, they are visible to God.

And so, as long as we have sin on our soul, we are unclean.

The words of God in Leviticus today ring true, “As long as the sore is on him

he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean.”

In a similar way, as long as the stain of sin is on our soul, we are in fact unclean.

And if we leave the uncleanness there, we could suffer a similar fate as foretold, where the unclean were sent to dwell apart, making their abode outside the camp.

This would certainly describe the many references to the souls in Purgatory or Hell, where people, who are unclean on the day they show themselves to the Priest, Jesus,

will be sent away … to dwell apart … outside the camp, the Kingdom of Heaven.

How much better for us to appear before Jesus, the High Priest, without blemish!

As we heard in Psalm 32 that we just prayed,

“Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered.”

Through the power of Jesus Christ, our faults are indeed taken away,

and our sins are indeed covered ... by His Blood ... and we are healed.

But we have to believe in His Power ...  and ask for His healing.

We have to approach Jesus with humility, with contrition and with trust.

Let’s realize that we need to be as concerned about the blemishes on our soul,

                                      as we are about the blemishes on our face.

Because we won’t be able to cover them or hide them forever.

If they should still be there when we arrive to see Jesus, the High Priest ...

He will see them and we may be sent away to have them taken care of.

That would be true loss. Both Purgatory and Hell would involve separation from God ... and continued suffering … one being temporary … one being eternal.

Jesus promises his healing touch to all who approach Him ...

in humility and sorrow and trusting in His power.

We need to be like the leper in today’s Gospel, and come to Jesus ...

regularly and often ... to let Him reach out and touch us and heal us.

That’s what happens when we go to the Sacrament of Confession, we get healed.

We all want to be clean.

Not just on our face, but everywhere.

So continue to tap into the healing provided by your Physical Doctors.

And don’t hesitate to tap into the healing provided by Jesus, the Divine Physician!

He’s the Doctor of the Soul. He alone has the power to heal and make whole.

And for our sakes He dispenses His power through His New Testament Priests

in the Sacrament of Confession.

Let’s practice preventative medicine for our soul and have it examined regularly.

For when we approach Jesus trustingly like the Leper saying,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

We’ll hear Him say to us,

“I do will it … be made clean!”