“If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him “I do will it, be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
How often have we prayed a prayer similar to the prayer of the man with leprosy? Our prayer might have been something like,“Help me Lord, I am in dire straits, my bills are due and I do not have the money to pay them”.
It could be: “Help me Lord, I am buried under this pile of work and can’t seem to find the daylight.Or it might be: “Help me Lord, for I am in the grasp of the evil oneand I can’t seem to get free.” Sound familiar?
Like leprosy eats away at ones flesh,sin eats away at a person’s heart.
If a person’s heart is not right, how could their minds be right? Minds cluttered with sin can not make choicesbest suited to attaining one’s salvation.
I recently had the opportunityto hear the witness of several peoplewho had asked God to clean up the messes in their lives. Their messes, similar to the messes we all have in our lives. Each one began with “I’ve never shared this with anyone before” or, “I’ve never told anyone about this until now.”
One such story came from the mother of a sonwho had fallen into addiction. She says she begged, pleaded and cried for God to heal her son from his addiction. She felt like God wasn’t answering her prayer.
She even resorted to fussing with God about her son’s addictions.
Her son’s addiction had placed a chasm between mother and son,
between sisters and brother. One day she finally decided to “let go and let God” take her worries and concerns. The situation didn’t turn pretty right away. As a matter of fact it turned worse. Her son was arrested and sent to jail. It was in jail that the son’s healing began.
I do will it, be made clean
Another story came from a manwhose mother was way too domineering.
She was constantly telling her son and his wife how they were raising their children all wrong. The man was emotionally drained from hearing how he and his wife were not the parents they should be. It wasn’t long that communication between the mother and son stopped. For a number of years they didn’t speak to each other. The man realized that the relationship between himself and his mother was not the relationship God intended them to have. He said when he forgave his mother,he began to hear her criticisms through what he described as a sort of “filter.” He came to realize that his mother’s intentions were in the right place, but she just couldn’t articulate her thoughts in a subtle Christian manner. Today, his mother needs constant care, and she is living with her son and his wife. Through forgiveness, their relationship is healed.
I do will it, be made clean.
Then there was the story of the man who like the leperlived on the outer fringes of the Church. He didn’t hate the Church,he just didn’t feel the need to belong to it. His wife, is a cradle catholic. His children were all raised Catholic. He didn’t hinder them from their faith,as a matter of fact he strongly encouraged them to practice their faith. It was just that their faith wasn’t for him. One day he felt that something was missing in his life.
He attended Mass with his wifeand it dawned on him that he wanted the joy his wife had. And as he looked around at the people in the Church, they seemed to have the same joy his wife had. As he watched them proceed up the aisle, hands and arms outstretchedto receive the body and blood of Christ, he discovered what was missing in his life. Not long after he began the RCIA process, and received the cleansing waters of baptism.
I do will it, be made clean.
We all have messes in our lives. It might not be an addiction,or a domineering mother. It might not be an indifference to the church.
If our lives were perfect, we wouldn’t be sitting in this church today
would we? God loves us in our messes. He wants us to come to him with our messes so he can begin the process of healing us. Like the leper, we only need to give our messes to God and let him clean us up!