Homily - 12 February 2006

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” says St. Paul to each of us today (I Corinthians 11:1). Paul is only able to imitate Christ because he knows Christ, because he has a friendship with Christ, a friendship that he nurtures and values above all else. If we are to imitate Paul and follow his counsel, we, too, must be friends of Jesus Christ and treasure this friendship above all else.
In order to be friends of Christ, we must spend time with him. Pope Benedict has spoken a great deal about friendship with Christ and recently to the young Catholics in the Netherlands he said, “Jesus is your true friend and Lord; enter into a relationship of true friendship with him! He is expecting you and in him alone will you find happiness” [Message for the First National Day of Young Catholics of the Netherlands, 21 November 2005].
If we know, then, that we will only find lasting and authentic happiness in Jesus Christ as the lives of so many saints clearly demonstrate for us, why are we so hesitant to spend time with Christ? Why are the Scriptures so very often at the bottom of our reading pile? Why do we not turn off the television and pray? Could it be that we are afraid of Christ?
St. Francis of Assisi often said, “What a man is in God’s eyes, that he is and nothing more” [Minor Legend, 6.1]. When we spend time with our friends we often encourage each other and look past each other’s faults. We tell each other that we are not as bad as some might think and we also tell each other that we are better and more skilled than really we are. We inflate each other’s ego, all in the name of self-esteem, but is this truly beneficial? Does it not do us more harm than good?
“What a man is in God’s eyes, that he is and nothing more.” To realize this is true humility because humility is not so much debasing ourselves as it is seeing ourselves as God himself sees us; St. Bernard of Clairvoux taught us this. When we spend time with the Lord he sees us just as we are – nothing more and nothing less. At they very same time that he sees our good works, all of the kindnesses that we have shown, all of the ways that we have faithfully followed him, he sees all of the times that we have failed, he sees our sins and our mistakes and our flaws. He sees the beautiful at the same time he sees the ugly. He sees what we portray to others at the same time he sees what we hide. He looks past nothing and ignores nothing. His is the greatest friendship for nothing is hidden. There is no reason for fear.
In friendship with Jesus there is no flattery, no puffing up. There are no undeserved compliments or praises. There is no ignoring of sins and faults. All is laid bare. There is nothing but faithful love. Is this, perhaps, why we are afraid to spend time with Jesus? Do we not know that he will show us – quite clearly – our sins and demand something from us?
If we are to be friends of Christ, we must be honest with him and not attempt to keep anything hidden from him. It is a vain attempt to do so for he knows all things and from him nothing is hidden. The longer we are in his company and the more honest we are with him, the more he reveals our faults, failings, and sins to us and at one and the same time he calls to be like him. As all friends do, Jesus challenges us to grow in holiness and he shows us the way to grow in holiness, but we must first seek his mercy and confess our sins.
Within this friendship with Jesus, each of us has been declared unclean because of our sins. We have all sinned against the Lord; we have all sinned against each other. To be friends of the Lord Jesus – to be honest with him – requires that we confess our sins to him and acknowledge our wrongdoing. We can say then with King David, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I covered not” (Psalm 32:5). After our confession we can echo David’s words, “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered” in the Blood of the Lamb (Psalm 32:1).
The leper who approached Jesus begging him, “If you wish, you can make me clean” through his words acknowledged his faults and sought the mercy of the Lord (Mark 1:40). Through faith and humility the leper sought friendship with the Lord and this the Lord granted him. “I do will it,” he said, “be made clean” (Mark 1:41).
Jesus sent him away saying, “but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed” (Mark 1:44). This is what Moses prescribed for the cleansing of a leper:

If the priest finds that the sore of leprosy has healed in the leper, he shall order the man who is to purified, to get two live, clean birds, as well as some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. The priest shall then order him to slay one of the birds over an earthen vessel with spring water in it. Taking the living bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, the priest shall dip them all in the blood of the bird that was slain over the spring water, and then sprinkle seven times the man to be purified from his leprosy. When he has thus purified him, he shall let the living bird fly away over the countryside (Leviticus 14:3-7).

Whereas the leper was cleansed and healed through the priest’s sprinkling him with the blood of the bird, we are cleansed and healed through the priest’s absolution and the Blood of the Lamb of God.
To his friends, to those who allow him to know them through and through, who allow Jesus to challenge them to grow in holiness each day, he still says, “but go, show yourself to the priest.” Let us not be afraid to be with Jesus, to renew and strengthen our friendship with him. When he shows us our sins and tells us to seek his mercy, it is only because he wants us to be whole and clean. He wants to save us from the disease of sin, but if we do not recognize and accept the symptoms of our sin he cannot give us his medicine to save us.
The true friends of Jesus come before saying, “Lord, ‘if you wish, you can make me clean.’” In this way we truly can, as St. Paul urges us, “do everything for the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). Having heard the depth of our faith and the strength of our love for him who first loved us, Jesus will say to us, “I do will it. Be made clean,” and we, too, will depart in joy and in peace.