Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Friday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle B - June 26, 2015

Friday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
June 26, 2015      8:30am


Most of us have heard of the rather well-known Trappist monk and contemplative Thomas Merton.
Merton once commented on the virtue of humility.
He said: “Humility is absolutely necessary if one is going to avoid acting like a baby all one’s life.
To grow up, in fact, means to become humble, to throw away the illusion that I am the center of everything.”
I think this is a good insight about humility.

The leper in today’s gospel has this.
The leper comes to Jesus with confidence – that Jesus has a power beyond his own that could help him.
So he is looking beyond himself, knowing that there is one more powerful than he is.
Also, the leper is not full of himself – not thinking that he is so important that, of course, Jesus will make time for him and cure him.
Instead, the leper begs, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
And the leper comes to Jesus with reverence – he does Jesus homage, kneels down before him, and addresses him as “Lord.”
He recognizes that in some way the divine is acting in and through Jesus.

The leper’s humility opens him to God’s power and he is healed by the touch and word of Jesus.
I think the insight is that personal healing and wholeness can also be ours if we remain aware that we are not the center of everything.
It can be ours if we reverence the Lord and recognize that he has a power beyond ours.

This kind of humility is needed for us to become spiritually mature and adult.