Monthly Archives: February 2021

Read more about the article The Leper is Healed

The Leper is Healed

In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals a leper.  In Biblical times, leprosy was incurable and highly contagious. It was considered a punishment for sin.  People believed that what was on the inside was manifested on the outside.  The leper was therefore not shown mercy, but cast out from society.  When Jesus approaches the leper and touches him, this is the first human contact the leper has had in years.  The leper has lived apart from family and friends and has not received a human touch let alone a hug for a very long time.  Jesus reaches out with compassion, mercy, and love and touches him, healing first his broken spirit and then healing his body. In our society today, leprosy is more widespread than ever and far more damaging because it is on the inside where we don’t readily see it and we are insensitive to the damage it causes because we have lived this way for so long.  Jesus comes to us this Lent to heal us of our leprosy. Our leprosy is a disease of the heart.  How many times have we been rejected from family and friends because we don’t conform in some way to who they think we should be or how they believe we should think?  How many times do we feel the need to “fit in” because we are afraid that others won’t like our real selves?  How many times do we have judgmental thoughts or say unkind things about others because they are different from us?  Each of us has been both the leper and the one who has treated another as a leper in some way. This is precisely what Jesus wants to heal in us and He will heal us if we approach Him with faith. Jesus knows everything about us; we cannot hide our flaws, idiosyncrasies, or sins from Him.  Yet when we were in sin He died for us.  Even in our most unlovable moments, He still loves us.  More than anything else, this fact should give us the courage to look deep inside ourselves because He will heal everything we don’t like seeing if we ask Him.  He awaits our approach to give us His mercy, the same mercy He had for the lepers of biblical times.  His mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation completely restores us and cleans even our darkest corners. He wishes to heal our woundedness from being treated as a leper as well.  Just as He touched the leper, He touches us in the holy Eucharist.  He places Himself in our hands.  This isn’t a figure of speech.  God Himself descends from Heaven and transubstantiates – changes – the bread and wine into Himself.  We have the incredible gift of being able to touch Him and be touched by Him every day of our lives.  How many wounds He can heal if we trust Him! This Lent He invites us to be reconciled with Him.  He waits for us with mercy, ready to forgive.  He…

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Read more about the article What is Lent?

What is Lent?

From the Question Box: Why do Catholics have Lent and why do you fast? Scripture tells us: “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: a time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)  We look to nature and the patterns that God created to understand the rhythms and cycles in nature and in our lives.  These cycles have a spiritual element as well as a physical element.  Just as God created cycles with day and night, the seasons, birth--life--death, our spiritual journey has a cycle as well.  God gave a time to plant and a time to harvest, and He also gives us a time for spiritual planting and spiritual harvesting.  Thus the cycle of Lent precedes Easter. In our journey to become closer to God, we are often as consistent as the waves on the beach; the tide comes in, the tide goes out.  We experience the push and pull of having worldly demands as well as spiritual demands on our time.  There is a continual battle between our wants and our needs.  The gift of the seasons of the Church (and I mean all Christianity here) is therefore another sign of God’s great mercy and compassion for us.  He gives us the seasons in the Church to focus on different aspects of our spiritual progress.  Just as He gives us day to work and night to rest, He gives us Lent to really focus on drawing nearer to Him. Lent maintains the Biblical patterns God set forth in Scripture.  Moses fasted for 40 days when he was with the Lord receiving the 10 Commandments (Ex 34:28). The forty days of Lent repeat the pattern of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert in which He fasted and prayed at the beginning of His public ministry (Lk 4:2-4). Lent is the time of spiritual planting through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.   Jesus instructs his disciples how to fast in a way that is pleasing to God: “When you fast . . . wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others you are fasting . . . and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Mt 6:16-18) Jesus models for us the incredible power of fasting when the disciples fail to cast out a demon and turn to Jesus who casts it out and explains, “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20)  In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke gives numerous examples of the disciples fasting to know the Will of God (Acts 13:2), for spiritual strength before a great undertaking (Acts 13:3-4), and for spiritual growth and wisdom (Acts 14:23).  While Catholics often fast throughout the year, the Church calls us to be united in our fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Lenten prayer amplifies our spiritual growth by looking deeply at Jesus’ suffering starting…

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