Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 31, 2020 12:00 pm · Sergio Muñoz Fita
REFLECTIONS ON THE HEALING OF A LEPER (Mk 1: 40-45) VIII
Over the past few days, we have been meditating on the verses immediately preceding the passage of Holy Scripture on the healing of the leper that we find in the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark.
This miracle happens during one of the Lord's apostolic trips through Galilee. This is how the evangelist records it: "He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.” (v. 38-39)
Here we find an almost solemn affirmation on the part of Jesus. He has – he tells us - come into the world “for this”, that is, to communicate a message, to preach, to proclaim and to heal. After last week’s meditations we are clear that in Jesus Christ the proclamation is identified with the Person. He is the Word that must proclaim and thus, the Lord gives himself to men announcing a message that St. Mark himself offers us at the beginning of his Gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (v. 15)
The call to conversion that Jesus made resound throughout all the towns and villages of Galilee is an always necessary message that we must listen to again today. It is said: Ecclesia semper reformanda, the Church always needs to be reformed. This is how St. Paul expresses this combat: “From him they learned that it is necessary to renounce the life they led, stripping off the old man, who is corrupting himself by the seduction of concupiscence, to renew himself in the most intimate of his spirit and put on the new man, created in the image of God in justice and in true holiness.” (Eph 4, 22-24)
All those who sincerely fight for holiness know how difficult it is to defeat “the old man” within us, and yet we cannot lay down our arms until we have succeeded, with the grace of God, in this battle. I want to see in the current circumstances a grace for our conversion. I must confess that everything that is happening has already done me a lot of good. It has been a way of awakening, stretching and practicing, among other virtues, detachment from this passing world. The whole life of a Christian should be a continuous praeparatio ad mortem, a preparation for death, but sometimes God uses events in our lives or the evolution of human history to sand the rough edges of our souls and refine us to face the definitive encounter with Him.
In Spanish we use the expression "make of necessity, a virtue". We can lament our present situation or we can embrace the challenges that are presented to us and see in them the hand of God that leads us to a greater union with Him.
We will return to this verse again tomorrow, but today we can simply ask God as we end this Lenten season to convert us. May we, in these days when the Church throughout the world is suffering, know how to take advantage of the present circumstances to offer God a “contrite and humbled heart”. (Ps 51, 19) May the Word of Jesus, the Word that is Jesus, move us with his grace to really begin a life of true adoration of the Father, “in Spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23) and may Mary help us come out of this time of purification more refined and more willing to follow Christ, her Son, to the end.
