SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

A great prophet has appeared among us;

God has visited his people. LK 7:16

LEVITICUS 13:1-2,44-46 

My Soul's Beloved,

Leprosy was considered a punishment for sins and the law required lepers to be declared unclean, they had to live outside the camp, and anyone or anything the leper touched became unclean and had to be ritually purified. Furthermore, they had to wear torn clothes, their hair was to be unkempt, and they had to cover their mouths and cry aloud, 'Unclean, unclean' to warn people to keep away from them. 

As long as the disease lasted they lived apart from family, relatives, friends, and society. When or if healed they were to show themselves to a priest, obtain a certificate from him, offer the required sacrifice, and only then were they allowed to return to the camp. 

Leprosy does to the body what sin does to the soul. In the former, the diseased flesh rots and becomes impervious to pain. In the latter, the life of the soul is lost and becomes insensate to sin. Only in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the soul made whole again and the sinner is restored once again to the family of God.

PSALM 32:1-2,5,11

My Soul's Beloved,

Only a repentant sinner who has been forgiven knows the joy that comes from being set free from the weight and burden of sin. 

Confession, forgiveness, and remission of punishment would be impossible if You, O Lord, were not a God of love who is quick to pardon and keeps no record of our past offenses. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, You wipe the soul clean when the priest absolves us of our sins and those blessed words are spoken, "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." 

How simple You have made the confession of ours sins my Lord, yet so few take advantage of this beautiful, healing gift. The tragedy of our times is that while You went in search of sinners, the faithful are hardpressed today to find priests who are always readily available for this remedy of healing for our souls. Too often, the faithful receive You in the Holy Eucharist with hearts that are far from clean. How much greater would our joy be if we were able to approach a priest for Confession as easily as we approach him for Holy Communion for we would truly be truly upright of heart when we did so. 

1 CORINTHIANS 10:31-11:1

My Soul's Beloved,

If every Catholic and Christian took the words of St. Paul seriously as so many saints have done to their eternal joy, and we did all things for the glory of God, how wonderful our world would be. 

St. Paul makes a bold claim when he says to the church in Corinth and to us as well, 'Take me for your model, as I take Christ.' Can we make a similar claim to our family, friends, and community with the conviction that he did?  We are called to encourage, foster, and build the faith not weaken it in anyone or at any time. 

MARK 1:40-45

My Soul's Beloved,

Today's Gospel passage reveals how we are to approach You in our prayers of petition and once again we note that it requires confidence, humility, faith, and obedience. 

Hearing of You and Your power to heal, the leper seeks You and having found You, dared to approach You, even though the Law forbade him to do so. Falling on his knees in humility he pleaded, ‘If you want to you can cure me.’ That's all it took to evoke a response from You. 

The evangelist tells us that You were sorry for him and what You did next was unthinkable to the Jews of the time, You stretched out Your hand and touched him. The poor man would have been dumbfounded - he would have long forgotten what it meant to feel the warmth of the touch of a human hand. And then he heard the blessed words, that every repentant sinner longs to hear, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ As soon as the words were spoken, the cure was effected, and the disease left him. 

Ordering him to tell no one about the miracle You asked him to show himself to the priest so he could be reintegrated into society and to make the necessary offering as evidence of his healing. 

Here we see the steps required when a sinner approaches You in the Sacrament of Confession. First, it is imperative that we expose the wounds of our soul to the priest, next we beg for pardon for our sins, the priest then gives us spiritual advice and prays the words of absolution over us and gives us the necessary penance as an offering to God for the gift of healing freely given and gladly received. 

So great must be our joy that we ought to tell the whole world what God has done for us in You, how completely we are forgiven and healed, so everyone will flock to receive this awesome grace.