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February 10, 2024On Wednesday, we begin the Lenten season, a time for us to focus on our relationship with God, letting go of all that holds us back from experiencing God’s merciful love. In our gospel reading this weekend, we will encounter a person who recognizes the need for healing, for acceptance, and for reconciliation with society, and in faith turns to Jesus seeking wholeness.
In a similar way, each one of us stands in need of God’s loving embrace in our own way. While we may not have leprosy, we need God’s healing love, whether it be from our insecurities, fear, loneliness, temptations, mistakes we’ve made, chronic illness, wounds we carry from our childhood, past relationships, and life experiences, or anything else that turns us away from God and from one another.
Lent is the time for us to get in touch with our own woundedness, our need for healing, and to bring it before Jesus with faith and confidence. It takes humility to recognize our weaknesses and the times we need to seek forgiveness. It takes hard work to change. In our gospel, the person in need of healing cries out, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” And in response, we hear the loving words, “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said I do will it. Be made clean.”
As we prepare to begin Lent, this gospel passage (Mark 1:40-45) is a wonderful prayer that can guide us as we seek to deepen our relationship with our loving God. As you read this passage, imagine yourself standing or kneeling before Jesus and let the words come from your heart. Let all the pain you hide inside, the fear you harbor, and the resentment you hold pour out at the feet of Jesus. Ask Jesus to bring you healing, to bring you peace, and to give you the strength to live your faith in thought, word, and deed.
I pray that this season of Lent brings each one of us closer to God’s loving embrace so that we may truly celebrate the joy of Easter in a new and profound way this year.
May God bless you and your loved ones today, tomorrow, and forevermore.
Fr. Harry
