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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Gen 17:1.9-10.15-22): When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said: «I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless». God also said to Abraham: «On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised». God further said to Abraham: «As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him».

Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, «Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?». Then Abraham said to God, «Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!». God replied: «Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation. But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year». When he had finished speaking with him, God departed from Abraham.
Responsorial Psalm: 127
R/. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.

Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
Versicle before the Gospel (Mt 8:17): Alleluia. Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Mt 8,1-4): When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Then a leper came forward. He knelt before him and said, «Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean». Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, «I want to, be clean again». At that very moment the man was cleansed from his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, «See that you do not tell anyone, but go to the priest, have yourself declared clean, and offer the gift that Moses ordered as proof of it».

«If you want to, you can make me clean»

Fr. Xavier ROMERO i Galdeano (Cervera, Lleida, Spain)

Today, the Gospel shows us a leper, painfully conscious of his sickness, approaching Jesus and beseeching: «Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean» (Mt 8:2). When we see the Lord so close to us but our head, heart and hands so far away from his project, from their salvation, we should also feel the compulsion to formulate the same leper's expression: «Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean».

But an important question prevails: Can a sin-unconscious society beg forgiveness from our Lord? Can it beseech a purification of any kind? We all know too many people with aching and wounded hearts, their personal drama, however, being they do not always realize the extent of their situation. But, in spite of everything, Jesus is always close to us, to the very end of the age (cf. Mt 28:20), while waiting for the same petition: «Sir, if you want to...». But, our collaboration is, of course, needed. St. Augustine's sentence: «God who created you without you, will not save you without you» has become a classical one. So that we can truly change we must strive to ask our Lord for help.

Some might wonder: why is it so important to realize it, to convert and to wish to change? For the simple reason that, should we not feel like that, we should not be able to positively answer the previous question, where we said a sin-unconscious society will find it very difficult to ask the Lord for help.

This is why, when the moments of repentance and of Sacramental confession arrive, we have to get rid of the past, of all the ulcers infecting our body and our soul. We should not doubt it for a minute: Asking forgiveness is a great moment of Christian initiation, because it is when the bandage over our eyes comes off. But, what if someone does notice his situation but does not want to convert? There is an old proverb that goes: «Long absent, soon forgotten».

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “By this leper the Lord trains us to be clear of pride and vainglory, to be thankful and grateful.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

  • “Jesus, takes from us our diseased humanity and we take from Him his sound and healing humanity. This happens each time we receive a Sacrament with faith, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which heals us from the leprosy of sin.” (Francis)

  • “The title ‘Lord’ indicates divine sovereignty. To confess or invoke Jesus as Lord is to believe in his divinity. ‘No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit'" (I Cor 12:3).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 455)