The verb "to clean" and its various uses help us better understand the power of Jesus' love. The leper asks, "Make me clean." He does not say cleanse me. Jesus responds immediately, "Be made clean." The leper is not asking for a physical scrubbing or washing of the infections in his skin. He is seeking a special power, a special care, that he perceives Jesus could exercise on his behalf. How helpful and wonderful that power would be if it were at hand when there are burned pots and pans sitting in a sink after a big meal. There's when "make clean" would make "cleansing" a piece of cake!Back to the gospel event. Why would Jesus immediately accede to a man, a man tortured with infections on his skin, whom he seemingly did not know? St. Luke gives no direct answer to such a question. Yet one word from the leper's lips and heart gives the answer. The word? "Lord."
St. John in his first letter from today's first reading makes clear how significant that one word can be: "The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God," he writes, "is the victor over the world." Further on he writes "whoever possesses the Son has life." This unknown victim of Hansen's Disease must have heard about Jesus and come to believe he was indeed much more than an ordinary preacher.
This event should remind us that when we bring the leprosy of our own sinfulness to God in asking pardon, he will speak to us with the same immediacy: "I do will it. Be made clean." There is no need for physical scrubbing or cleansing. In using the very simple phrase "Father, I have sinned," we stand before God and hear his words: "Be made clean." This is the true wonder in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Don't overlook it!
