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.
