LORD, IF YOU WISH,
YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after Epiphany is a prayer from today’s gospel, “Lord, If You Wish, You Can Make Me Clean.” [Cf. Luke 5: 12-16]

“Lord, If You Wish, You Can Make Me Clean!”

CLEANLINESS VS. DIRTYNESS

We know the difference between a clean bathroom sink and one with gobs of hard toothpaste and beard hairs and dark stuff which we have no clue to what it is.

We know the afterwards – slimy like feeling – squirming within us – when we break a secret or use the back of our hand to semi-whisper some dirt about someone.

We know the difference between clean and dirty.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel we hear about Jesus meeting a man in one of the towns he went into who had leprosy. This meant he had a visible skin disease of some sort. It meant he could beg in towns – but he had to scream out if people got too close to him – “Unclean! Unclean!” It also meant that he had to get out of town every night – and sleep in the fields or a cave or what have you.

He begs Jesus to heal him – to cleanse him – to restore him – and Jesus answers his beg. Jesus answers his prayer. Jesus heals him.

However, he now needs some kind of certification – some sort of approval from a priest at the temple. I couldn’t find out what kind of process this was – what it would consist of. It must have happened at times – because it’s here in the gospel. Did a healed person have to pay a fee? If yes, that seems strange – because where would they get the money? Okay begging. Life seems to be filled with tough stuff in olden times.

PRAYER

If you want help in your prayer life, there is in today’s gospel a method: go to Jesus or yell to Jesus like the man in today’s gospel. Beg Jesus for healing. Say, “Lord, If You Wish, You Can Make Me Clean.”

A suggestion: take a rosary and say on the 59 beads or just 10 beads, “Lord, If You Wish, You Can Make Me Clean.”

I have nothing against Hail Mary’s. I have nothing against the rosary.

Next if you say to yourself, “I keep on having distractions when I pray” I have two things to say to you.

First of all: distractions are normal. Keep on working on re-concentrating – but distractions are normal. Moreover, distractions are not sinful – unless they are sinful thoughts – like you spend your time in prayer inwardly complaining about someone in the family or some neighbor – of if you’re in church praying – and you keep on talking to yourself about what someone is wearing or what have you – without dealing with that someone or minding your own business – and you’re letting your inner complaining destroy or distort or de-energize you.

Second, take your rosary and say the prayer of the man in today’s gospel, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Say it 59 times on the 59 beads – or just use your beads without counting.

I like to tell people, “Rosaries are not just for Hail Mary’s.”

I’ve been saying this for years. I campaign that people use rosaries to say short prayers on the beads – prayers like, “Help!” or “Thanks” or “Come Lord Jesus” or “Lord have mercy.” “Christ have mercy!” “Lord have mercy!” or “Hi Mary!” or “Hi God!”

My hope is that more people use the Moslem practice of praying while sitting around or walking around or as people are often seen on trains or buses or on public benches with prayer beads in hand – saying their names for God or what have you. “Compassionate!” “Merciful” “All Loving!” “All Forgiving!” “All Knowing!”

So I’m advocating here to say and to prayer – using beads: “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

NEXT: THE DISTRACTION TO HAVE WHILE SAYING THIS PRAYER

The distraction or the thought to have while saying and praying, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” 59 times is this: simply think about feelings of uncleanness – uncharitable thoughts – gossipy thoughts – bad thoughts about others – or self put down thoughts – thoughts about things we’ve done in our life that we are ashamed of – or feel they ruined our life – or mistakes we made.

Whatever – makes you feel ugly from your past….

And then we go to Jesus in prayer and say, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
That’s what the man in the gospel asked for – to be cleansed – so I can be in better relationships with those in the human community.

Sin makes us self centered. Sin is something we do alone – in the dark – or in secret – or with a smiling face – but behind the mask – we’re hiding our better self from the community.

Make a mistake – and we focus on ourselves. A reader at Mass mispronounces a word – or reads the wrong reading – and then when they realize afterwards – they don’t hear anything else – but a “Stupid, stupid me!” with. That’s what they focus on – and miss everything else.

And Jesus will wash us and clean us and heal us – like he does to the man in today’s gospel. We hear that word “water” in today’s first reading. Let the Living Water of Jesus wash us.

Close your eyes at every Mass. It is the Last Supper here and now for us. Then picture Jesus with a bowl of water washing our feet – washing our memory – washing our soul – and drying us with a towel and patting our toes and saying, “Have a good day now! Serve one another!” “Love one another!”

SOME PEOPLE

I have no clue who this man was in today’s gospel – or what happened to him.

But I do know myself and I know others.

I know when I feel ugly or dirty or dumb or stupid. It’s usually after saying something wrong to someone. I could have kept my mouth shut but I didn’t.

As I was reading today’s gospel last night I thought of some people who would really be helped by today’s gospel.

I think of a girl I knew – the daughter of a couple who were very good friends of mine. The daughter was down to 75 pounds and was in bed all the time moving closer and closer to death. Her marriage had broken up. She moved back home with her 2 kids. Her husband disappeared. She had a one night stand with a heroin drug user and she got AIDS.

It was at the time when AIDS was being discovered more and more and more. AIDS was called the modern leprosy. People avoided people with AIDS – nervous about toilet seats and door knobs and breath – and what have you. They were isolated by many.

I was asked to see her and pray with her – and I forgot all that stuff when I was with a person. Here she was a real live specific person – not an abstraction – and I just held her and prayed with her and for her.

I think of a few priests I know who had to leave the active priesthood because they abused underage young people. Horrible. Criminal. It was a horrible crime that priests of our church did. There were cover-ups – and ignorance – and stupidity thrown in – and more kids were hurt. I have listened to the horror stories of those who have been abused. The abusers caused havoc in the lives of those they hurt.

Our religious community has as our focus the poorest and most abandoned souls. So I think priests who have been ousted from the priesthood because of abusing others – have to feel pretty crummy – and I hope they sit with Jesus in their horror – and feelings of uncleanness – having what some call “an incurable disease”. I hope and pray they too pray, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

CONCLUSION

It also struck me last night as I wrote this that Luke has the added comment, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”

This is a bit off my point: Jesus heals us – but was someone in the early church advocating an early form of the sacrament of reconciliation or confession – by that comment from Jesus?

I was also wondering: How many times in the history of our church has it hit folks that this is a great text for confession? Next penance service I’m looking for a Gospel text, I’ll use Luke 5: 12-16.

Most biblical reference books point out that those with leprosy in Jesus' time didn't have the modern form of leprosy - called Hansen's Disease.

Picture on top of a Norwegian man with leprosy. I found it on line with the following as its source: "Pierre Arents printed the photographs for Leloir's monograph on leprosy titled, Traité pratique et théorique de la lèpre, published in 1886. This image is Plate VIII from that atlas." ca. 1886

CREATIVITY  AND  IMITATION 

Quote for Today  January 7,  2011


"To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation."


Georg Christoph Lichtenberg [1742-1799], Aphorismen [1902-1908], edited by Albert Leitzmann

HOLINESS

Quote for the Day - January 6, 2011

"Many, mistaking devotions for devotion, imagine perfection to consist in reciting a great number of prayers, in joining religious societies."

Adolphe Tanqueray [ 1854-1932], The Spiritual Life, 1932


Painting on top - Interior of a Baroque Church with a Friar and a Peasant [c. 1645] by Dirck Van Delen [1605-1671] - with figures by Cornelius Van Poelenburgh [c.1593-1667]

ST.  JOHN  NEUMANN 

PRAYER

Quote for Today - Feast of St. John Neumann - January 5,  2011



"Lord, teach me how to live."


St. John Neumann [1811-1860]

WHERE IS GOD?

WITHIN CAME 

THE ANSWER

Quote for Today - January 4,  2011

“God is more within us than we are ourselves.”

Elizabeth Ann Seton [1774-1821]

ON  TIME 

Quote for the Day  - January 3,  2011

"I'm convinced that time has no existence in the mind at all. We partition time out of necessity, so that if I say I will be somewhere at 1 o'clock, we agree on what 1 o'clock is. Civilization couldn't function otherwise. But our minds are a swirling mass of images and recollections that are connected, and it's the connections that count."

Arthur Miller [ 1915-2005], in U.S. News and World Report, January 11, 1988

TEN EPIPHANIES

INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Ten Epiphanies.”

It’s a New Year. It’s a fresh start. It’s 2011. What do you need today – here at the beginning of a new year for reflection – for consideration – for growth? What’s your state of mind, heart and soul right now?

On New Year’s Eve we were watching on television the ball coming down in Times Square. The old year ending was ending; the new year was about to begin. And I was hearing reporters asking people about resolutions and hopes and plans for the New Year, I heard answers like the following: Lose weight. Make better use of time. Read. Exercise. More time with the family. Get out of debt. Get a job. Stop smoking. I even heard someone say, “More God!”

EPIPHANY
This year it’s interesting that we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany almost immediately as we begin a new year.

So it struck me to preach on the theme of Epiphany – Discovery – Surprise. We use that word “epiphany” from time to time to talk about “A ha! moments!” – “Eureka! moments” – “Insight! moments”.

The three wise men or Magi discovered God arriving as a baby. That was their epiphany moment.

What have been your epiphanies – your faith, your spirituality, your what life is about discoveries.

For a New Year’s Resolution how about coming up with 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 epiphanies you had in life and then ask: now what?

Awareness is step one; reflection is step two; resolution is step three; action is step four.

TEN EPIPHANIES
I was visiting my sister Mary last Tuesday till yesterday and on the 3 hour drive up and back – and during the week I began thinking and then jotting down various epiphanies that I’ve had so far. I came up with about 36. Relax! I only picked 10.

Question: What are your epiphanies? What has hit you about life so far? Share them with each other. The secret is to jot down lots of them and then pick your top 10. Here are my 10 – but not in order of importance.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 1: IT IS WHAT IT IS

I noticed a small white plaque with writing on it at a doorway in my sister’s house. It simply said, “It Is What It Is?”

I asked my sister the history of the plaque. “Oh,” she said, “Rita gave it to me. She heard me say that a few times last summer at a family reunion and she saw the plaque in a gift shop and bought it for me.”

It triggered a memory. I made the program called, “EST”* a good 35 years ago. It consisted of two weekends and I think 3 evenings. It cost $450. Its sole purpose was to learn one basic message: “It is” – “est” in Latin. It wasn’t a religious program. I was one of 250 people making this program in New York City – right across from Madison Square Garden. I sat there and heard person after person talking out loud how they thought life was unfair or they thought their life was going to go this way or that way – but their life went a way they didn’t want it to go. And the leaders of the program kept on saying, “It is what it is – Est – and people want their life to be what it isn’t.”

Somewhere on the second weekend of the program it hit me. They are right. It is what it is.

I can change things in the future – maybe – but I can’t change what happened in the past. It is what it is. I got the parents, the genes, the gifts, the home, the history, the reality I got and was brought up in.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 2: NEXT JULY 4TH, WHAT DIFFERENCE IS IT GOING TO MAKE WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?

In a way, epiphany # 2 is sort of like “epiphany # 1.

Somewhere along the line I said in some situation that I have long forgotten, “What difference does it make what is happening right now next July 4th?” I assume it was in a situation I didn’t like: a meeting that was endless, a traffic jam, a foot in the mouth moment, a long or wrong sermon.

When I became aware of this inner slogan, I realized that many people had this same epiphany. Some say, “What difference is all this going to be 1000 years from now?” Or “a million years from now.” There is the Persian saying and story about some king who would give a bag of gold coins to the person who came up with the secret of life and the answer was, “This too shall pass.”

EPIPHANY NUMBER 3: NUMBERS HELP

Somewhere along the line we all discover the value of numbers.

Someone says, “He’s selfish!” And the other person says, “Give me one specific example of how he is selfish?” And sometimes the other person is silent. 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 7’s and 10’s – are also very helpful.

Numbers help – as in deadlines – as in grades (SAT’s) or what have you – as in cost – as in age – as in voting – as in minutes in a sermon – as in this coming up with this list of 10 epiphanies.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 4: JESUS NEVER HAD A BICYCLE – THE VALUE OF WALKING
Jesus never had a bicycle or a camel – like the Magi or Wise Men. He did travel by donkey at the beginning of his life and on the Sunday before he died – but if I read the Gospels correctly, Jesus walked.

Someone along the line I learned the importance of walking. My dad was a great walker. And he took us walking every Sunday in our growing up years.

Walking is one of the great secrets of life. When angry. Walk. When you lose a loved one. Walk. When you don’t know what to do. When you’re depressed, get off your but and walk. Forest Gump ran. Running works. But walking in my opinion is better. Keep walking.

I love the nursing home story about the guy who was told he could walk, but he needed to walk with his walker, so people saw him walking up and down the corridors with a walker up in the air.
Want a good New Year’s Resolution: Walk unless you can’t walk – then get your wheel chair rolling.

I always like to park near the end of the parking lot at a mall. It saves at least one dent in a car in a lifetime and it gives you at least 2 and ½ years more of life.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 5: KISS – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

We’ve all heard the KISS principle – Keep It Simple Stupid. And right now there is a simplicity movement going on in our world.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 6: DOES GOD HAVE A PLAN?

One of my 3 big questions for after I die is to ask God if He had a plan for me and for others?

I know many humans have said that. I know we pray in the Our Father, “Thy will be done!” I know Jesus always wanted to do his Father’s will – and it seems to simply be to love one another as he loved us.”

After that I have problems. I know we all die – and that will entail suffering etc. – but I want to talk to God when I die about this plan stuff - namely: specifics versus generalities.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 7: THERE’S ALWAYS ONE PAIN YOU KNOW WHERE IN EVERY SITUATION

My niece Monica said to me a long time ago. There’s always one pain – one problem person – in every work place. Since then I’ve added parish, rectories, teams. Then I ask Judas’ the question from the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “One of you is going to betray me” and Judas asks, “Is it I Lord.”

EPIPHANY NUMBER 8: IT IS ME!
I read a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn once which was a great epiphany. He said, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

And so Jesus said, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.”

And so Jesus said, “Stop judging!”

And so we begin every mass with a penance prayer – “Lord Have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.”

Or as so many people have said, “Look in the mirror!”

EPIPHANY NUMBER 9: THE GOD EPIPHANY
I was born with parents who had the gift of faith – that there is a God - and they gave that gift of faith to me and my brother and two sisters.

In my 4th year of college in a course in philosophy – our professor, Father Joe Oppitz – who was stationed here at Annapolis for a time – gave what he called, “The Existential Argument for the Existence of God.” He said, “Everything that exists is existing either by itself or by a force other than itself.” I don’t know about rocking chairs and rocks. They can’t think or talk. I do know that we know it’s not us that’s keeping us in existence right now. Hey we could be dead by tonight. So it’s a force other than itself that is keeping us going. Some give that force or power the name of God. I do.

The moment I heard that, I got that. It was one of the biggest epiphanies of my life. Sky, stars, mountains, trees, dogs, cats, iron, gold, water, all that surrounded me – screamed out to me God’s voice, “I’m the One who is keeping you and all this in existence.”

And I’ve been hearing that voice ever since. When I see an ice cream cone, I know there is an ice cream maker. When I see a person, I know that person had parents. When I see everything and anything, I know there is a God – who made that. Now I’m not aware of this at every moment – but I am at many moments – and the older I get, the more the merrier.

Some people get his dynamic of God’s presence when they go into our Eucharistic Chapel or any church – or when they stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon – or stand at the ocean’s edge on a quiet vacation morning.

However, the deeper epiphany is, “What is this Star Maker like?” What is the personality of this Creator, this Ongoing Upkeeper, like? Just as I don’t know the personality of the person or persons who built the benches of this church, I don’t know the personality of this person we call “God” or “The Creator”. Here is where revelation comes in. Like the Magi we have to follow the star. We get lost at times. Surprise the 3 kings discovered God as a baby. Some discover him as Bread. Some discover him when they too are on the cross. Keep searching – as a Christian – a Christ follower – and that baby grows up and we discover the Trinity – and on and on and on.This year meet God – Meet Jesus – Meet the Holy Spirit in new ways.

EPIPHANY NUMBER 10: THANKSGIVING – IT’S ALL ABOUT THANKSGIVING

Somewhere along the line people have the great epiphany. They might be at the hospital for the birth of their first or fourth grandchild – and they pinch themselves. Without me, this kid would not be here.

Then they become “Thank you” people – saying that every day of their lives.

Catholics sometimes realize, “Oh, that’s the meaning of Eucharist”. It’s the Greek word for "Thanksgiving". Oh that’s what Jesus was doing that last night – at his Last Supper – he was giving thanks – or that’s why I’m here at Mass – to say, “Thanks!”

Oh I get it. I just had an epiphany.






* EST also stands for "Erhard Seminars Training" - developed by Werner Erhard.


Picture on top by Andrew Jones - Brandon News and Tribune - Florida, "Last year Dimitrios Kalogiannis of New Port Richey found the cross during the dive into Spring Bayou. The Epiphany dive for the cross is watched around the world by millions of spectators."