Luke 5:12-15

Daily Meditation:  Luke 5:12-15

Luke 5:12-15

Beloved, this encounter of the leper with You is a beautiful illustration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I can almost picture this mass of putrefying flesh which is revolting and disgusting.  It reeks of stench that chokes me and makes me sick to my stomach and I can imagine involuntarily shuddering and turning away.  It is a reaction that is devoid of either love or compassion.

The leprosy is an allegory for sin.  All sinners are as wretched as this poor man who seeks You in order that You may heal him.

In this Gospel narrative we are told by the Evangelist Luke that this man who is stricken with leprosy seeks You and having found You drops to the ground.  He looks beseechingly at You and says, "Lord, if You want to You can make me clean."  He recognized You as God or her would not have asked for this impossible thing from a mere man. 

His cry touched every note in the symphony of Your divine mercy and evoked in You the most tender response.  Then You did something that was as unimaginable then as it is now, You reached out and touched this seething mass of dying flesh.  When was that poor man last touched my Beloved?  Was it a wife, a mother, a child, or a father, who filled with pity and sadness touched him one last time before  he was sent into exile to live with the other ostracized lepers on the fringes of society?  Lovingly and gently You responded to his cry, "I do want to, be healed."

Instantly the man is cured  but the story does not end here.  You instruct him to go and show himself to the priest, make the offering required for healing as required  by the law.  The priest's declaration of healing would seal what You had done for him.

All the steps for making a good confession are found in this Gospel event.

1. Like the leper we must have an awareness that we have sinned.
2. We seek You and fall on our knees and confess the sins that have alienated us from You.
3. We beg you to forgive, heal and restore us once again to kinship with You.
4. You touch us tenderly and heal us.
5. The priest absolves us in Your Name and gives us an act of penance which we will do and he confirms what You  have done for us by telling us to go in peace our sins are forgiven.

It is Your desire that we go and show ourselves to the priest.  It requires humility to kneel before another man anointed as Alter Christus and confess our sins.  It requires faith to see You in the person of the priest and to be assured that we are truly forgiven in this most excellent of Sacraments - the Sacrament of Reconciliation which enables to start anew every time we fall.

----Mine, trust Me, lean on Me, rest in Me.

Thank You my Beloved,  I will.