Unburdening our leprous souls

Sisters and brothers in Christ, one January 9th, men from across the country (and perhaps even the world), started Exodus90. It is 90 days dedicated to prayer, ascetical practices, and community to help the men remove from their lives those things that separate them from loving God fully and experiencing His love fully in of them. In other words, the men are cleansing their heart so that  they may not have, as Saint Paul puts it in today's first reading, "an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God." (Please keep these men in your prayers, especially the 27 men at St. Albert the Great and their group leaders. Also, pray for the women who are participating in Fiat90.)

In a way, Exodus90 is a way for men to go through a cleansing so that they can more fully participate in the life of the Church at their local parishes. A leper, like the one in today's Gospel, is one who is ostracized from the community but, worst than that, since they are considered unclean, they cannot enter the temple to worship the Lord. We are like lepers because our sins cause us to be ostracized from the community of faithful because of the shame and guilt that burden our heart and our soul. But worst than that, our sins cause us to be separated from the love and mercy of God.

However, when we turn to God with humble and contrite hearts and say, "[Lord] if you wish, you can make me clean," and surrender ourselves to His mercy, God will respond, saying: "I do will it. Be made clean." We can then participate fully in the life of the Church and be reconnected with the community of the faithful. Most of all, thought, we can be right with God again. This is also what  our Lord and Jesus Christ offers to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance) or Confession.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,

touched the leper, and said to him,

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,

but go, show yourself to the priest

and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.

He spread the report abroad

so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

He remained outside in deserted places,

and people kept coming to him from everywhere.