Christ, the Son of God, is always ready and
willing to help the sinners who seek forgiveness and repentance. When we
are remorseful and ask Him for exoneration, He never gives up on us no
matter what we did or said. As a loving Father, He always comes to our
rescue when we get ourselves into trouble. He grants us all kinds of graces
to safeguard us from falling into the treacherous traps of Satan's sinful
temptations.
Jesus the only Son Of God willingly endured all kinds of humiliation, pain,
torture and accepted death on the cross for our sake and salvation. Through
His crucifixion He absolved us from the original sin that our first parents
Adam and Eve committed. He showed us the righteous ways through which we
can return with Him on the Day Of Judgment to His
Father's Heavenly kingdom.
Jesus made his call to the needy, persecuted, sick
and sinners loud and clear: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) The outcast leper believed in
Jesus' call and came to Him asking for cleansing. Jesus took his hand,
touched him with love, and responded to his request.
The leper knew deep in his heart that Jesus could cure him from his
devastating and shameful leprosy if He is willing to do so. Against all odds
he took the hard and right decision to seek out at once Jesus' mercy.
With solid faith, courage and perseverance the leper approached Jesus and
begging him, kneeling down to him, and says to him, "If you want to, you can
make me clean." When he had said this, immediately the leprosy departed
from him and he was made clean. Jesus extended His hand and touched him with
great passion and strictly warned him, "See you say nothing to anybody, but
go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your
cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them." But
the leper went out, began to proclaim it much, and spread about the matter
so that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in
desert places: and they came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1/40-45)
We sinners, all of us, ought to learn from the leper's great example of
faith. Like him we need to endeavour for sincere
repentance with heartfelt prayer, begging Almighty God for absolution from
all our sins. Honest pursuit of salvation and repentance requires a great
deal of humility, honesty, love, transparency and perseverance. Like the
leper we must trust in God's mercy and unwaveringly go after it.
The faithful leper sensed deep inside his conscience that Jesus could
cleanse him, but was not sure if he is worth Jesus' attention and mercy.
His faith and great trust in God made him break all the laws that prohibited
a leper from getting close to or touching anybody. He tossed himself at
Jesus' feet scared and trembling. With great love, confidence, meekness and
passion he spoke to Jesus saying “If you will,
you can make me clean.” He did not mean if you are in a good mood at
present. He meant, rather, if it is not out of line with the purpose of God,
and if it is not violating some cosmic program God is working out then you
can make me clean.
Lepers in the old days were outcasts forced to live in isolation far away
from the public. They were not allowed to continue living in their own
communities or families. They were looked upon as dead people and forbidden
from even entering the synagogues to worship. They were harshly persecuted,
deprived of all their basic rights and dealt with as sinners. But in God's
eyes these sick lepers were His children whom He dearly loves and cares for.
“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds
of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the
prophets who were before you". Matthew(5/11-12)
The leper trusted in God's parenthood and did not have any doubts about
Jesus' divinity and power to cleanse and cure him. Without any hesitation,
and with a pure heart, he put himself with full submission into Jesus' hands
and will knowing that God our Father cannot but have mercy on His children.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God". (Matthew5/8)
We need to take the leper as a role model in our lives. His strong and
steadfast faith cured him and put him back into society. We are to know God
can do whatever He wants and to trust Him. If He is willing, He will. We
just have to trust in the goodness and mercy of God and keep on praying and
asking, and He surely will respond in His own way even though many times our
limited minds can not grasp His help.
Praying on regular basis as Jesus instructed us to is
an extremely comforting ritual: "Therefore I tell you, all things whatever
you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall
have them. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against
anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your
transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in
heaven forgive your transgressions" (Mark 11/24-26)
The leper's faith teaches us that God always listens and always responds to
our requests when we approach Him with pure hearts, trust, confidence and
humbleness. Almighty God is a loving father who loves us
all , we His children and all what we have to do to get His attention
is to make our requests through praying. "Ask, and it will be given you.
Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be
opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who
seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened". (Matthew 7/8 -9)
*Elias Bejjani
*Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political
commentator
*Email
phoenicia@hotmail.com
*Web sites
http://www.10452lccc.com &
http://www.clhrf.com
*Mailing phoenicia group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/.
**First published on March 13/2011