THE LEPROSY OF THE SIN The Lord comes to treat our deeper males. The healing of a leper. The leprosy, image of the sin. The priests forgive the sins in person of Christ. Apostolate of the Confession. The healing)of a leper that gospel narrates must have affected very much the peoples and was a frequent object of preaching in the catechizing of the Apostles. This makes to us it see the fact of being gathered by so much detail by three Evangelists. Of them, San Lucas adds that the miracle was realized in a city, and that the disease was already very advanced: it was quite covered of leprosy, he(says to us. The leprosy was considered to be at the time as an incurable disease. The members of the leper were invaded little by little, and deformations were taking place(produced) in the face, in the hands, in the feet, accompanied of big sufferings. For fear of the contagion, one was separating them of the cities and of the ways. Since it is read in Lev 13, one was declaring them for this motive legally impure, one was forcing them to take the disclosed head and the impudent clothes, and they had to be announced from off when they were happening(passing) for the surroundings of an inhabited place. The peoples were fleeing of them, even the relatives; and in many cases his(her,your) disease was interpreted as a God's punishment by his(her,your) sins. For these circumstances, it(he,she) surprises to see this leper in a city. Probably it(he,she) has heard speaking about Jesus and goes time looking for the occasion to approach Him(It). Now, finally, he(she) has found him and, so as to speak to him(her), breaks the incisive prescriptions of the former Mosaic law. Christ is his(her,your) hope, his(her,your) only(unique) hope. The scene must have been extraordinary. The leper prostrated himself before Jesus, and said to him(her): " Gentleman, if you want you can clean me ". If you want... Probably a longer speech had been prepared, with more explanations ..., but ultimately everything remained come down to this ejaculation full of simplicity, of confidence, of delicadeza:... In these few words a powerful prayer(sentence) is summarized. Jesus harmonized; and three Evangelists who report the event have left the surprising gesture of the Gentleman us: it(he,she) extended the hand and he(she) touched it(him,her). Till now all the men had fled of him(it) fearfully and repugnance, and Christ, who him(her) could have recovered distantly - like in other occasions-, not only does not separate of him(it), but it(he,she) managed to touch his(her,your) leprosy. It is not difficult to imagine Christ's tenderness and the gratitude of the patient when it(he,she) saw the gesture of the Gentleman and heard his(her,your) words: I want, it(he) remains clean. The Gentleman always wants to cure us from our sluggishnesses and from our sins. And we need to wait neither months nor days in order that it(he,she) happens(passes) near our city, or together with our people(village)... The same Jesus of Nazareth who treated this leper is found by us every day in the nearest Sacrarium, in the intimacy of the soul in grace(thanks), in the sacrament of the Penance. " It(He) is Medical and treats our egoismo, if we allow that his(her,your) grace(thanks) should penetrate up to the bottom(fund) of the soul. Jesus us has warned that the worst disease is the hypocrisy, the pride that leads to hiding the own(proper) sins. With the Doctor an absolute sincerity is indispensable, to make clear entirely the truth and to say: " Gentleman, if you want - and You want always-, can treat me ". You know my
sluggishness; I sit(feel) these symptoms, suffer these other weaknesses. And we show him(her) simply the sores; and the pus, if there is pus "; all the miseries of our life. (S Josemaria - " Is Christ who happens(passes)) Today we must remember that the same sluggishnesses and weaknesses can be the occasion to approach more Christ, since it happened to this leper. From that moment he would be already an unconditional disciple of his(her,your) Gentleman. Do we approach with these dispositions(regulations) of faith and of confidence the Confession? Do we wish vividly the cleanliness of the soul? Do we take care neatly(studiously) of the frequency with which we have foreseen to receive this sacrament? The II.nd The Santos Padres saw in the leprosy the image T The Holy Fathers saw in the leprosy the image of the sin (S.J.CRISĂ“STOMO)for his(her,your) unsightliness and repugnance, for the separation of the others that it(he,she) causes... With everything, the sin, even the venial one, is incomparably worse than the leprosy for his(her,your) unsightliness, for his(her,your) repugnance and for his(her,your) tragic effects in this life and in other one. " If we had faith and if we saw a soul in condition(state) of mortal sin, we would die of terror " (Ars's Sto Cura). We all are sinful, though for the divine mercy we are far from the mortal sin. It is a reality that we must not forget; and Jesus is the only one that can treat us; only He(It). The Gentleman comes to look for the patients, and It is the one who only can calibrate and measure with all his(her,your) tremendous reality the offense of the sin. Because of it his(her,your) approximation affects us to the sinner. He, which is the same Holiness, does not appear abundance of ire, but with great sensitivity and respect. " This way it is Jesus' style, which came to give fulfillment, not to destroying. On having recovered, on having recovered from the leprosy, the Gentleman realizes big signs. These signs were serving to demonstrate the power of God before the diseases of the soul: before the sin. The same reflection develops in the Salmo31, which proclaims precisely the beatitude of the pardon of the sins: Happy the one that has been absolved of his(her,your) fault(sin). Jesus recovers of the physical disease, but at the same time it(he,she) liberates of the sin. It is revealed of this form as the Messiah announced by the Prophets, who took on Yes our diseases and assumed our sins (Is 53) to liberate ourselves of any spiritual and material disease (...) . This way, so, a central topic of the today liturgy is the purification of the sin, which is like the leprosy of the soul " (J. Paul II, 1985). Jesus says to us that it(he,she) has come for it: to excuse, to redeem, to get away ourselves from this leprosy of the soul, from the sin. And his(her,your) pardon proclaims as sign of omnipotence, as sign of a power that only God himself can exercise (8). Every Confession is an expression of the power and of the God's mercy; the priests exercise this power not in own(proper) virtue, but in Christ's name-, as instruments in hands of the Gentleman. " Jesus identifies us of such a way with it(him) in the exercise(fiscal year) of the power that us confiriĂł - was saying Juan Paul II to the priests-, that our personality is as if it(he,she) was disappearing in front of his(her,its), since It is the one who acts by means of us (...) . He is the own(proper) Jesus who, in the sacrament of the penance, declares the authorized(expert) and paternal word: Your sins are excused to
Priest. In the Confession we approach, with worship and gratefulness, the same Christ; in the priest we must see Jesus, the only one that can cure our diseases. - Gentleman!-, - if you want, you can treat me. - what beautiful prayer(sentence) in order that you say it often with the faith of the leprosito all that you should happen what God and you and I know! You will not be late in feeling the response of the Teacher: " I want, be clean!. Jesus treats us with supreme sensitivity and love needier(more in need) when we are because of the lacks(mistakes) and sins. We have to learn of this leper: with his(her,your) sincerity it(he,she) puts in front of the Gentleman, and kneeling of knees (I Walk, 142)) it(he,she) recognizes his(her,your) disease and asks to treat him. The Gentleman said to the leper: I want, it(he) remains clean. And to the moment it(he,she) eliminated of him(it) the leprosy and remained clean. We imagine the immense happiness of the one that up to this moment was leprous. So much it was his(her,your) pleasure that, in spite of the warning of the Gentleman, began to proclaim and spread throughout the news of the immense good that had received. It was not possible to contain with so much happiness for alone him(it), and he(she) feels the need to make all participants of his(her,your) good luck. This one has to be our attitude before the Confession. Since in her(it) also we remain free of our diseases, for big that could be. And not only the sin is cleaned; The soul acquires a new grace, a new youth, a renovation of Christ's life in us. We are still had joined by the Master of a particular and different way. And of this new being and of this new happiness that we find in every Confession we have to do participants whom more we estimate, and to all. It(he,she) must not to us be enough the credit found to the Doctor, we must make come the news, across our personal apostolate, to many(many people) that do not know that they are sick or that they think that his(her,your) males are incurable. To take many people to the Confession is one of the big orders that Christ does to us in these moments in which real multitudes have moved away from that one that more they need: the pardon of his(her,your) sins. - n occasions, we will have to begin for an elementary catechizing, advising them probably books of easy reading and explaining to them, with a language that they should understand, the fundamental points of the faith and of the morality. We will help them to see that his(her,your) sadness and his(her,your) interior emptiness come from the God's absence in his(her,your) lives. With many comprehension we will facilitate to them even the way of doing a deep examination of conscience, and will encourage them to that they come to the priest, probably the same one with which we confess habitually, to that should be simple and humble and should count(tell) everything what it(he,she) they removes from the Gentleman, who is waiting for them. Our prayer(sentence), to offer for them working hours and some mortification, we themselves to confess with the frequency that we should have foreseen, will attract of God new effective graces(for these persons that we wish approach the sacrament, Christ himself. That day was unforgettable for the leper. Every our meeting with Christ is also
unforgettable, and our friends, whom we have helped in his to walk up to God, will never forget the peace and the happiness of his(her,your) meeting with the Teacher. And they will turn in turn into apostles who spread the Good New one, the happiness of confessing well. Our Mother Santa Maria will grant us, if we come to Her(It), the pleasure and the urgency of communicating big goods that the Gentleman - father of the Mercies - has left us in this sacrament.