A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“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 Covid pandemic has created an understandable near obsession with ‘antibacterial cleanliness’ as we find ourselves wearing masks, spraying with disinfectant surfaces and avoiding close contact with others. All of this is, of course, necessary in order to safeguard ourselves and others from spreading this highly contagious virus. While there are those who might cavalierly flout such common-sense safe guards, the vast majority of us are exercising responsible behavior to preclude the spreading of this terrible pandemic.
In the Biblical pre-scientific world, what constituted ‘uncleanness’ often mirrored the prejudices of the age. Diseases that were relatively non-infectious rendered a person ‘unclean’ and an outcast from society. ‘Demon possession’ often became the facile explanation for epilepsy or the variety of mental disorders that we now commonly treat with counseling or medication.
While we might scoff at such naïve attitudes, all of us should not be so hasty. Sadly, many still render ‘unclean’ the latter-day outcasts of our society. Sadly, for many, the outcast ‘other’ often bears the name ‘immigrant,’ the poor, persons of color and our sisters and brothers of the LGBTQ community.
No wonder, then, the Church calls us yearly to repent such sinfulness and uncleanness in our own hearts as we hear the yearly challenge to repentance on Ash Wednesday: Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.
And so, as we begin our Lenten journey this Wednesday, as ashes are placed upon our foreheads, may we humbly seek that purity of heart that only the Master can give to each one of us, as we join the leper in today’s Gospel story in pleading with the Lord of mercy: “If you wish, you can make me clean.”