28th Sunday - Lepers (Confession - Eucharist)

 

In the Gospel today, ten lepers have an encounter with Jesus and are healed, but only one, who is a Samaritan (non-Jew), returned to thank Him.

Why would Jesus tell the lepers to go and show themselves to the priests? During the time of Jesus, when someone had a sore and if they thought it may be leprosy, they were required to show it to a priest, who would determine if it was leprosy or not. And if it was leprosy, he would be excluded from the community, to prevent the rest of the community from getting leprosy. Then if the sore went away, the leper would go and show himself to the priests, who would then re-admit them to the community. So the priest was responsible for excluding and re-admitting them to the community.

Leprosy caused the person to have open sores, often times puss oozed out. Lepers lose feeling in their hands and feet, and often times lose their fingers and toes, and have only stubs for hands and feet. Leprosy is contagious, and no one was permitted to touch a leper, for fear of getting the disease, and would therefore become unclean. Not only was the disease terrible to look at, they are unable to have personal contact with others. It must have been painful to not be able to be around family and friends and excluded from others.

Leprosy has been around for thousands of years and many saints, moved with pity, worked with lepers. St. Francis of Assisi worked with lepers, and even kissed their wounds. Saint Damien and Saint Mother Marie Cope ministered to lepers on Molokai, Hawaii. Later Father Damien would eventually succumb to the disease. Saint Mother of Teresa of Calcutta created homes for lepers and helped them to be employed.

During the year 2000, which was a Jubilee Year, I went on a mission trip to Calcutta India and helped Mother Teresa’s sisters take care of the poor. We went to a leper colony where hundreds of people lived who were missing hands and feet from disease.

On the same site they lived, they worked at a factory making clothing for the people of their country. Even though the disease is still around today, it is easily treatable, through antibiotics, but the poor, often times, do not have access to medical care.

Today, when people have a contagious disease while in the hospital, they are in what’s called “isolation”. And those who come into the room are to wear gloves, masks and a gown to protect not only the healthcare workers, but guests come to visit them.

Leprosy is also analogous to mortal sin. In the days of Jesus and even in recent times, lepers were separated from the community for fear that others would catch the disease. But once the disease was cured, as Jesus mentioned in today’s Gospel, the person was to go to the priest to show he was healed. The priest would then admit the person back into the community. Therefore, when someone commits mortal sin, the sin causes the person to be separated from the community (the mystical body of Christ), until he goes and shows his sins to the priest in confession. And once the priest gives absolution, all sins are washed away and the person immediately returns to the mystical body of Christ and is restored to the community.

Jesus Himself instituted the sacrament of confession on the day He rose from the dead and appeared to His apostles in the upper room. Christ told the apostles to follow His example: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you". Just as the apostles were to carry Christ’s message to the whole world, so they were to carry his forgiveness: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Our Lord gave them authority and power to forgive sins, and this is has been passed down to the bishops and priests today through the sacrament of Holy Orders.

The Catholic Church, who speaks on behalf of Jesus tells us, if we commit a mortal sin, such as to purposely miss Mass on Sunday without a serious reason, or some other serious sin such as pornography, impurity adultery, or contraception, we are first to go to Confession before we receive Holy Communion. Otherwise, if we fail to go to Confession after committing a mortal sin, and receive Holy Communion when we shouldn’t, we commit an additional mortal sin called a sacrilegious Communion and we receive no grace whatsoever from Communion.

Jesus spoke about ingratitude and sacrilege with regard to the Eucharist, when He appeared to St. Margaret Mary revealing His Sacred Heart. He said, "Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.”

Our Lord was lamenting the fact that there is such ingratitude by those who receive Holy Communion and those who receive the Eucharist without reverence and in a sacrilegious manner.

Due to the Virgin Mary’s alleged apparitions in Medjugorje, where She is asking all Catholics to go to fast on bread and water on Wed and Friday, pray 3 rosaries a day, attend daily Mass, to read a short paragraph from the Bible and to Confess monthly. More and more people throughout the universal Church are confessing their sins monthly and some even more frequently. They are responding to Our Lady’s call.

They come to show their sins to the priest and Jesus with His tender compassion forgives. We were once lost, but are found when we come to Confession to receive the infinite mercy of Jesus. We joyfully return to the mystical body of Christ and therefore after we go to Confession, we return to Jesus by receiving Holy Communion in the state of grace. Recall that the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” And so every time we receive Holy Communion we are to give thanks to the Lord, who comes to dwell within us.

All of us are sinners, whom Jesus came to save, so let us resolve to quickly run to Jesus in Confession to show the priest our sins and let us return to thank Him for forgiving our sins and for receiving the grace of being able to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.

Deep down inside, we all desire to be healed from our sins. We know our sins are ugly to God, to others and to us, and we want our soul to be washed and made clean. We long to hear the words of Jesus, “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you.”

And so, we pray: Thank you Jesus for forgiving my sins and washing me, making me clean. Thank you Jesus for every grace and gift you give to me, especially my life, my faith and my friendship with you. Thank you for entering within me in Holy Communion. Thank you for the gift of Eucharistic Adoration, where I come to adore you and gaze upon you and be with you, because I love you. O Jesus, with every beat of my heart, I thank you and pray that others will be inspired to thank you and to love you. Amen.