WE ARE CALLED TO BECOME PURE AND HOLY
All three readings today teach us that we are called to become pure and holy. But we don’t become holy by some ritual observances. We become holy by confessing our sins to God and offering our lives for God’s glory and by sharing God’s love with everyone around us without discriminating against anyone on the basis of colour, race, culture, religion, life style or social status.
Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus heals a leper, liberating him both from the disease of leprosy and from the unjust and inhuman social isolation and ostracism to which the lepers were subjected.
We need to trust in the mercy of a forgiving God who assures us that our sins are forgiven and that we are clean. We are forgiven and made spiritually clean from the spiritual leprosy of sins when we repent of our sins because God is a God of love Who waits patiently for us. The only condition required of us is that we ask for forgiveness with a repentant heart. We are sure to hear His words of absolution, "Very well-- your sins are forgiven, and you are clean," echoed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Excerpt from Homilies of Fr. Anthony Kadavil on Mark 1:-40-45 available at http://cbci.in