I suppose it is a strange title or aspiration: Be like the leper! However, we will see why this leper is someone that serves as a model for all of us. It does not seem desirable to compare ourselves to a leper, upholding him as the standard, but there is much to be gained as we reflect on the First Reading and the Gospel.
Posture of the Heart
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” – vs. 40.
Consider the very first two acts the leper does – he came, and he knelt. The leper was keenly aware of his utter need and dependency on the mercy and power of Jesus. Even before he acts, it is clear that he is propelled by the clarity and urgency of his needs. He knows the true state of his soul. He has no pretense or false ideas of his sufficiency or goodness. He only knows one thing: he needs Jesus.
He puts his need into action: he comes to Jesus. Had this poor leper first spent decades trying to seek healing on his own? After years of no improvement, had he fallen into despair? Had he almost completely given up hope prior to hearing about Jesus? We cannot know this leper’s particular experience, but we do know that in today’s Gospel, the truth of his need pierced his heart. He came to Jesus and then knelt before him.
It is one thing to come to Jesus. Many did that, even the Pharisees at times. It is quite another to come and kneel before Jesus. That one simple act spoke volumes about the posture of his heart. He is sick, deformed, ostracized, and yet he comes and fully exposes his neediness at the feet of Christ.
Tone of the Heart
Take a moment to imagine the leper kneeling before Jesus and hear the tone of the leper’s voice in his request: “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
You can hear softness mixed with urgency. You can hear his faith intertwined with expectant hope. You can also hear a kind of humble human acceptance of whatever response he receives: “If you wish…”
If we listen closely, we can hear an echo of his words in Jesus’s own words in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” -Lk 22:42
In our human experiences and difficulties, it can feel challenging to pray this way, not just the first part prayed by the leper: “If you wish,” but especially the second part prayed by Christ: “…still not my will but yours be done.” To pray this way reveals a heart truly surrendered. This is not a surrender of defeat like a camp of soldiers in a battle, but rather a confident, heart-surrender like one overcome by love.
When we pray these words, let us examine the tone in our own voices. Let us express to our Beloved Jesus that we are ready, right now, to surrender more deeply and fully to His Magnificent Love that is constantly calling, moaning for us.
If possible, kneel, open your palms, lift your head, and pray slowly:
My Jesus, my Love, thank you for conquering my hardened heart. Oh, melt any coldness or rigidity with the warmth of Your love. Expand my heart and tenderize it. Enflame it with a passionate love, so that our acts – Yours and mine – are one.
