“If you will, you can make me clean” (Mk 1:40). In the leper’s prayer in today’s Gospel, there is everything: his faith, his fragility, his surrender. He asks for no explanations, demands no guarantees, and he does not express any sense of entitlement. He only trusts. Jesus looks at him, is moved, reaches out his hand, and touches him. The touch of Jesus shows the gesture of a God who does not remain outside our wounds, but enters within, touches them, and welcomes them to heal them.
A Pure Prayer
The leper’s prayer is one of the purest prayers in the Gospel: “If you will, you can heal me.” There is no presumption, no negotiation. There is unreserved abandonment. We too can be touched by Christ, by abandoning ourselves totally to Him who heals even what no one sees. Today’s Gospel invites us to do as the leper did: to approach, to kneel inwardly, and to say with sincerity and faith: “Lord, if you will… enter into my wound as well.” Nothing else is needed. Many beautiful words are not required; being “okay” is not needed. The most important thing is to turn to Him with the heart and let ourselves be touched; if we let ourselves be touched like the leper, we become witnesses not of what we have done, but of what God has accomplished in us.
Compassion
Jesus is moved to compassion and approaches him: And then comes the divine response: “I will; be purified” (Mk 1:41). The will of the Lord is that our life be complete. The leper shows us that we can be isolated from everyone, even our relatives, but we are never unknown to the Lord, who is moved to compassion for us. Jesus’ response is accompanied by a gesture: “he stretched out his hand and touched him” (Mk 1:41). This is not a kind of magic rite but shows the will for contact, for closeness. However, in doing so, Jesus “transgresses” one of the purity norms of the law, which strictly forbade contact with lepers (Lev 5:3). Jesus overcomes these “human” restrictions, restoring absolute primacy to love, which must be the criterion of every choice, of every tradition, of every habit and decision of ours.
Reintegration
The miracle is followed by the instruction Jesus gives to the man healed to go and show himself to the priests to present the offering. According to the legislation of Leviticus (Lev 14:3-30), whosoever is healed of leprosy had to undergo a ritual practice before being declared clean and then reintegrated into normal social relations by the priests. Jesus, therefore, wants not only his healing but also his full reintegration into society. What does the leper do? He goes away and begins to announce the fact! Thus, the fame of Jesus spreads, and Jesus is forced to stay in desert places and cannot enter inhabited places; forced to live like a leper after healing a leper. It is quite striking how Jesus, to give us back life, took upon himself our sin, willing to pay the price, every price. “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Prayer:
Lord, extend your hand upon us and purify that which is wounded, weary, or lost. Make us capable of entrusting ourselves to your will and allowing ourselves to be transformed by your love, and, healed by your touch, may we bring into the world the joy of what You have accomplished in us.
Dear Fr Obiako,
You have a gift for writing and sharing the good news. Your reflections and examples are so clear yet profound. How beautiful are your words. You help me imagine the scenarios of Jesus’ life better. God is at work within you.