Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

“Jesus, you can make me clean.”

February 14, 2021

“A leper came to Jesus…” (Mk 1:40)

Would the leper have come if he were not suffering from a dreadful disease? Does bad health hinder or help our faith? Was leprosy the catalyst that made the leper aware of his need for God? Did it awaken in him a desire for the cleansing of his soul? Was desire for bodily and spiritual healing what led him to faith in Jesus? It seems to be so; notice what his actions and words tell us: “…kneeling down [he] begged Jesus and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.” The man desired more than freedom from leprosy; he wanted to be cleansed of sin.

Could the Lord be doing something similar in your soul and mine when we are suffering? When we ourselves or someone we love gets sick, does it bring us to our knees? The man with leprosy in today’s Gospel not only came to Jesus but, by kneeling and in words, he showed his belief in Him as Lord: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Many who came to Jesus were motivated by both faith and a need for healing. They believed in Jesus’ power to heal both body and soul; and they trusted He would not recoil in fear and disgust at the contagious nature of their suffering.

Think about the great variety of people who sought Jesus out for healing:

Four men carried a paralytic to Him and when a huge crowd prevented their getting near, they opened up the roof above Him and let down the mat on which the man was lying. Because of their “faith”, Jesus forgave the man’s sins and then healed him of physical paralysis.
When a woman with a hemorrhage touched His clothes, Jesus answered her desire for healing, telling her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction” (Mk 5:34).
When two blind men heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Son of David, have pity on us,” and Jesus replied, “Let it be done for you according to your faith” (Mt 9:27ff).
Time after time, “…healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith” (CCC, 2612).

Jesus paid a price for answering the prayers of those whom He healed. As a result (Mk 1:45), “it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places.” The alienation and isolation suffered by lepers and others, Jesus took upon Himself. The lepers, having been freed of their afflictions, could return home, but Jesus could not, not until He paid the price of our salvation on the Cross.

My sons and daughters in Christ, may we never hesitate to come to Jesus for healing, never allow our shame or the attitudes of others water down our faith. Let us keep in mind what Jesus tells the leper today (Ibid), “I do will [to cleanse you]. Be made clean!” Jesus hears us whenever, wherever and however we cry out to Him in faith. Remember His words: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Jesus loves us with a love that far surpasses all we can hope for or imagine. His love reaches even unto death on the Cross. When we feel burdened by our sins, He wants us to come to Him without fear. Let us imitate the good thief, who in the last hours of his life on earth, said to Jesus on the cross beside him (Lk 23:42f), “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” At once, Jesus replied, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” After a life of crime and misery, the thief received from God the grace to trust Jesus like a little child. Jesus’ love for us is no less than His love of the good thief. Jesus wants to cleanse us of whatever makes us unclean or fills us with loneliness or shame. He longs to show us that His love is stronger than sin and more powerful than our feelings of rejection or isolation. He wants us to hear His voice (Mt 11:28), “Come to me, all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

At the Last Supper, just before dying on the Cross to redeem the world, Jesus assured the Apostles (Jn 14:12-13), “…whatever you ask in my Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me, in my Name, I will do it.”

When we pray as Jesus taught us, when two or three gather in His Name as we are doing now, may we never worry that we are asking for too much from the Lord. Let us only be concerned that we come to Him with faith like that of a child. Remember St. Paul’s words to the Romans (Rom 8:31-2), “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all, how will He not also give us everything else along with Him?”

Jesus remains with us through His Church. Wherever He is present, there is mercy, there is peace. In the last line of the Gospel today, we are told: “…people kept coming to [Jesus] from everywhere.” This is what I pray will happen during the Lenten season, which begins this next Wednesday. May the Spirit keep moving hearts to hear those words of Jesus, “Come to me; I will give you rest.”