Today’s Gospel involves the Leper who prostrates himself before Jesus and proclaims that Jesus can heal him if he so wills. The spiritual themes of leprosy have been explored throughout history as a parallel to sin and being unclean morally.
Today in the homily I heard an interesting take from a priest who is a convert and a retired Navy doctor.
He explored how in Hansen’s disease that the bacteria deadens the nerve endings to such a degree that the sense of touch or pain is lost in the members affected. He then went on to talk about how sin in our life can deaden our conscience such that we become seemingly immune to those sins in our life.
I thought this an interesting parallel which also got me thinking along the same lines. That even though we can deaden our conscience, God is still giving us the grace to break through this. We might go on for years being morally blind in an area and then start feeling pricks of conscience. While we easily might try once again to ignore such insights given to us, we also might start to cooperate with this grace received and to see our need for salvation and in particular a savior.
At least, this is how I see it and my own testimony in being given the grace to respond to God’s love in my own life. While my response is quite imperfect, it is much better than the paths I was on. It is quite gratifying to know that in my continuing prayer for God’s will for me to be made clean that Jesus will reply “I will, be clean”.
