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The leper in today’s Gospel fared slightly better. Jesus cured his condition following a heartfelt plea, which he seems delighted to grant: “‘Of course I want to! he said. ‘Be cured!’” The leper is ordered to keep the episode quiet and to ‘show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your healing’ in thankfulness. Although the leper subsequently goes out and publicly declares what has happened, he suffers no rebuke. Rather, it is Jesus who suffers the consequences of the leper’s actions; he ‘could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived’ and is continually surrounded by ‘people from all around’ begging him to heal them. We can only imagine what a nuisance that must have been.

Through Bernadette, the Virgin Mary invites us to live lives of prayer and penance. Yet how often do we fail to heed this call? We are often like the leper: we hear but do not listen. We go out and, having gained something from the Lord, do our own thing. How often do we pray when we are tired, upset or angry at ourselves and those around us? How often do we find the courage to be like Bernadette, and in the face of criticism and opposition, remain steadfast and committed to living out lives that imitate Jesus and the saints?

It can be tempting to think of prayer and penance as things we must do, rather than as ways of drawing nearer to God. There are so many opportunities to pray – silently, privately, publicly, with Scripture – and to face ourselves in the Confessional. Everyday presents us with opportunities to revel in the joy of being transformed and to show this to others.

How magnificent the Lord’s face must be, if we need to be continually transformed in order to see it, on the road to perfection. Such change is possible – sometimes painful, and it is available through prayer and penance; in giving ourselves over to the Lord and to others. ‘In the communion of the body of Christ, possession can only consist in giving, the riches of self-fulfilment in the passing on of gifts’ (J. Ratzinger).
Martin Smith

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