stinking smell

The hill is almost empty. At the seminary, the long weekend started last Friday and ends on Monday when the seminarians will be back from their long weekend sojourn in their respective dioceses for the start –of-the-week classes.

Since I do not directly belong to any diocese, I was left behind and had to stay in my cell at the cloister of community of monks in St. Meinrad, do my homework, read my assignments and upload photos in my facebook and update my blog.

The routine is not new to me, as a matter of fact; I do enjoy getting submerged in this kind of weekend routine. Well, thanks God, I am a bit relieved from the stressful week that passed which was kind of tough week for me as the lessons in the four courses that I am taking this semester in my MA had escalated to an intensity and a degree that really require so much time and focus, lest I may end up flanking these courses.

Taking a break from my reading assignment in Ethics and Philosophy of nature and man, trying to breathe and get a little respite from Aristotle’s arguments and Thomas Aquinas’ points in his writings, I found myself deeply moved with today’s Gospel.

Today’s Gospel reading says: (Mk 1:40-45): A leper came to Jesus and begged him, “If you so will, you can make me clean”. Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean”. The leprosy left the man at once and he was made clean. As Jesus sent the man away, he sternly warned him, “Don't tell anyone about this, but go and show yourself to the priest and for the cleansing bring the offering ordered by Moses; in this way you will make your declaration”. However, as soon as the man went out, he began spreading the news everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter any town. But even though he stayed in the rural areas, people came to him from everywhere.

The Scripture reading today invites us to greatly encourage ourselves to contemplate on our own faith because it seems that our lives are paralleled to the leper’s life. Where are we in the light of today's Gospel? Isn't it true enough that there are times in our life- sometimes or oftentimes – when we sin?

Our life is similar to the leper's life. At times, we live in sin, apart from God and ourselves. But this Gospel encourages us and offers us a model: to openly affirm our total faith in Jesus, to completely open our hearts to Him, and once cleaned by the Spirit, to go around proclaiming that we have met the Lord, that we have been healed from the leprosies of our life!

When was the last time we went for the sacrament of Reconciliation? When was the last time we experience the sacrament of Joy? Perhaps now is the time.

One thing is clear: Jesus wants us to walk along with Him, He wants to clean us from all our leprosies brought by the cruelties of life and the evils of the world around us, and how do we react to that invitation?

We have to go and meet Him with the leper's humility and let Him help us to die free from sin to live by His Justice. Let our leprosies from the evils that caught our lives be healed and be cleansed and get rid totally of their stinking smell.

Blessings to all of you and have a happy Sunday.

Now I feel much better. I can now go back to my reading assignment and continue with Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles III and Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics Book 3.