by Fr Francis Anthony
Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46
Psalm 31:1-2,5,11
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45
Theme: God’s Loving Compassion and Healing
Dear friends,
The opening words of today’s liturgy, the prayer the Psalmist saying:
Be my protector, O God, for you are my rock and my stronghold.
That is the strong faith of the Psalmist asking God to be the Protector. And in the opening prayer that I read just now, we have this very beautiful words:
Grant (we are beseeching God), that we may be fashioned by Your grace (that all of us be fashioned by Your grace and going further) to be a dwelling place for You (That is our hope that we, wherever we are, would be the dwelling place of God in our lives).
And this beautiful words as I was preparing my sermon seemed to be sandwiched for us within this auspicious, joyous Chinese New Year, Saturday and today. The celebration began on Friday and coming Wednesday, we are celebrating Ash Wednesday, a day of prayer and fasting.
But what is the factor that will help us to link these two? Yes, I thank God as I said in the introduction for this great joy of all the family reunions and friendship that was there. And at the same time, to be aware of myself, who am I in the presence of God.
In the family get-together, what is happening is the relationship is solidified. The relationship is strengthened. The relationship between the various members of the family coming together. They may have grouses, put aside. Yes, this is one family.
And what draws us?
It is the grace of God that has fashioned us. Let us not forget all the families, and I speak of the Catholic families, are blessed by the grace of matrimony. And all the members are blessed by the various sacraments. And that is the grace that has fashioned us. And that allows God to dwell in us.
In the First Reading, very pathetic, if a person discovers he is getting leprosy, he has to be ostracised from the community. He has to go away and be on his own. And if somebody passes by, he has to shout ‘unclean, unclean‘ so that that person does not come close to him because leprosy is very contagious, then and even now.
And it is a leper who is cleansed by Jesus. ‘If you want, you cure me.’
‘I want to.’ God has sent His Son to bring us to Him. He has sent His Son to dwell among us, to help us to see who we are. Yes, Jesus came, He spoke a lot through parables, the teachings and also He cured and ultimately we will see His love on the cross.
Yes, but let us not put these things that happened long ago. That Jesus is with us today. Yes. As the prayer said: A dwelling place,
I want that.
And our Lenten Season begins on Wednesday to help us to see how open am I to that dwelling of God in me?
Yes. First thing that comes to our mind: Yes, I will be sorry for my sins. I must change. But the fundamental truth is: God dwelling. Am I making myself available to God?
God came and dwelt among us as the Gospel text in Saint John will say. To manifest the glory of God. And that is seen in the person of Jesus. Let us ask our Lord to help us, to open our minds to receive Him and as I said just now, we have the joyous period of Chinese New Year this weekend and we are going to go through a period of penance beginning from Wednesday.
What is it for? To make us to realise that we have been fashioned by God’s grace and that He is dwelling in us.
So let it be also a day, a period rather, the whole Lenten Season, of thanksgiving that God has come to me. Though I could be a sinner but He forgives me. Like He cleansed the leper, He cleanses all my sins and He comes to me and makes it possible for me to be with Him.
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