Lev 13:1-2, 45-46 / 1 Cor 10:31 -11:1 / Mark 1:40-45
There are four words which we have been hearing over the past few days and we’ll still be hearing it for the next few days.
Those four words are Chinese words and they are “Gong Xi Fa Cai”. The translation means congratulations and wealth or prosperity.
That is the usual and popular Lunar New Year greeting and it also expresses our desire and longing in life.
We desire to be wealthy, or at least to always have money, so that we will be happy and have no worry. It’s as simple as that.
Though it may sound as simple as that, yet we all know that it is not easy to be wealthy.
Along the way we might realize that the only way to be wealthy is through hard work, and if we desire to be wealthy, then we will have to work hard for the money.
But it is said that we use our health to gain wealth and then later on we spend our wealth to try to regain our health.
So, what we really desire in life is health so that we can enjoy our wealth.
But it seems that we always lack in one or the other.
In the gospel, the leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: If you want to you can cure me.
Although there were no details about the leper’s background and how he contracted the disease or how long he has been suffering from it, yet it is clear that he was desperate.
He pleaded with Jesus on his knees. He has lost everything - whatever wealth, family, friends, health, and he also knew he was losing his life.
In that plea of desperation, Jesus responded with a divine proclamation: Of course I want to! Be cured!
As we think about the gospel account, we will come to realize the essentials of life and what we really want.
We want to be reasonably healthy in life so that we can live life happily. We don’t need to be that wealthy in order to be happy. We should realize by now that health is wealth.
We will certainly pray that we will not be in that kind of situation like the leper - in desperation, in isolation and in desolation.
And we pray that when we are afflicted with an illness or sickness, we will believe that Jesus will cure us and we will hear those words: Of course I want to! Be cured!
A priest was relating this particular experience he had. He received a call to visit a terminally ill patient.
He went to the hospital and came to the single bedded room that the patient was in. He knocked on the door and went in. He saw the patient and introduced himself and said that he came to pray for the patient and to give him the Anointing.
But the priest was taken aback when the patient said: For what? Don’t you think I’ve been praying, but nothing is happening. I don’t need any more prayers.
The patient turned around and didn’t want to look at the priest. The priest was stumped and he didn’t know what to do next.
Then by sheer divine inspiration, he took the cross from his hospital kit and placed it on the drawer next to the patient’s bed.
Then he said to the patient, “I am leaving this cross on the drawer. Maybe you ask Jesus why your prayers are not answered.”
With that he left the hospital.
A few days later, the priest received a call from the patient’s relative to inform him that the patient has passed on.
The relative also said that after the priest had visited the patient, he was seen clutching the cross to his heart.
There was also a strange transformation from anger to come calmness and the patient passed on peacefully.
What can be said from all this is that the Cross of Christ has the power to transform desolation to consolation, from desperation to salvation.
Because on the Cross, Jesus suffered to take away the pain of our infirmities. On the Cross Jesus died so that we can have life and be fully alive with the love of God.
In the cross we hear again the words of Jesus: Of course I want to! Be cured!
Let us embrace the Cross. In the Cross we will find healing, peace and salvation.