215. Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Meditations no. 569 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Domine, si vis, potes me mundare!

THE fame of Jesus spread to the four winds through Galilee after the first miracles were performed. A new longing grew in the hearts of many afflicted people for whom there was no human hope. The crowds began to seek him; they went like the wind stirs the harvest, from one place to another, in the footsteps of Christ, guided by the news that reached them. What eagerness moved the lepers, the crippled, the blind, the sick and the needy to draw near to Jesus! What a desire there was in all to feel on their foreheads the hand that poured out health and cleanliness, to meet that gaze that made evil flee! Do we not also notice this desire? It is not because we are not a little lepers, a little crippled. … For if we need Jesus, let us go to Him with confidence.

Especially difficult was the situation of lepers, who, in addition to the scourge of their terrible disease, suffered from estrangement from society, from their family and acquaintances. According to the law of Moses, leprosy was not only considered a disease, but the most serious form of ritual impurity. It was up to the priests to diagnose it and declare the sick person unclean, who had to remain outside the towns until the priests certified his cure. For this reason, leprosy constituted a kind of religious and civil death.

The hope and joy of Jesus’ miracles also reach those outcasts of Israel. One day, a certain man covered with leprosy decides to overcome humiliation, loneliness and helplessness in order to implore mercy from the Lord. While he was in one of those cities of Galilee, behold, a man, all covered with leprosy, as soon as he saw Jesus, fell down with his face to the ground (Lk 5:12). The people turn away from him, in disgust and fear. The Lord does not; the Lord always welcomes everyone with mercy, because he has come to earth to do good.

At the sound of his bell, the leper makes his way. The disease has advanced a lot and the limitations of that man are evident. Everyone makes room for him for fear of contagion; he is already accustomed to looks of rejection, contempt or, in the best of cases, to compassion. In his heart, however, there is faith. He firmly believes that Jesus can work that marvelous miracle that is like a resurrection, after having died for the world. And the sick man prays to Jesus: “Domine, si vis, potes me mundare!” (Lk 5:12); if you want, you can cleanse me. That one was a leper, completely covered! But with what confidence he approaches Jesus, and what delicacy there is in his words.

The attitude of the sick man could not be more eloquent. He draws as close to the Lord as he can, until he is within reach of his hand; he shows his evil with simplicity before Jesus and the crowd that surrounds him; on his knees, humbly, and with very few words - those necessary to express his anguish and suffering - he entrusts himself to divine omnipotence. He is already before Him: he knows that he will not reject Him. His voice is heard clearly, full of faith, expressing the longings of his heart: Domine, si vis, potes me mundare (Mt 8:2). Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me. An intense silence takes hold of all those who attend the scene. Eyes rest on Jesus waiting for his answer, which does not delay. The Master stretches out his hand towards that heap of rottenness and, touching it, pronounces the words of salvation: volo, mundare (Mt 8:3); I will, be clean. Instantly, that rotting flesh, covered with misery, becomes healthy and manly flesh.

The Evangelist does not fail to point out the reason for the prodigy: the compassion of Jesus Christ. Divine mercy has moved his hand to heal. The audacity and faith of that man won his heart. How many times have these same words of the sick man from Galilee helped us in our prayer and will do so throughout our lives: Domine, si vis, potes. Let us turn with confidence to God’s mercy, showing our need, with faith, with audacity, with simplicity: Lord, the Church, the Work, my friends, this and that need of my soul. And the miracle will be repeated again: Volo, mundare, I will, be clean.

Effectiveness of obedience.

AFTER THE amazement and joy of the miracle, St. Mark shows that Jesus’ dialogue with the leper has an important culmination. He said to him: “Look, don’t say anything to anyone; but go, go to the priest and bring the offering that Moses ordered for your healing, so that it may serve as a testimony to them.” It was necessary, because the Law commanded it, that this healing be legally recognized and that those who had been sick recover their rights. The Lord does not ignore these details of the divine law, he gives them due importance. We must fulfill our obligations to society and claim our rights, even if it involves effort. But Jesus wants the event to have as little repercussion as possible. He told him with force and clarity. Jesus asks the favored for discretion; he says to him: look, tell no one (Mt 8:4). Why publish, if He does not ask for it, the favors received?

The leper did not know how to carry out this express indication of the Lord. As soon as he left, the Gospel tells us, he began to proclaim and spread the news. His enthusiasm seemed to him reason enough to ignore this recommendation. He considered it more important to proclaim the praises of God than to maintain a reserve that seemed out of place to him. He wanted to shout his joy to the world and considered it unimportant to observe a silence that would perhaps have its cause in the modesty of the Master. Unfortunately, the effects of his disobedience were immediately manifested, to the point that [Jesus] could no longer enter any city openly, but remained outside, in lonely places. But they came to him from everywhere.

He was not docile, although he had the best dispositions in the world, because he understood, in a very superficial way, that his judgment was better or that the Lord’s warning was not important. His conduct brought inconveniences to the life of Jesus Christ: he could not enter any city from then on, perhaps causing limitations to his preaching, in addition to the discomforts that life in a field entails.

It is not enough to have good intentions; it is necessary to learn to obey, to do good - discite benefacere - in order to be effective. Have we not often sinned ourselves of foolishness in such cases? Have we not set out for ourselves what was not for us, what was not in our power to fulfill? Have we not committed foolish things, for lack of consideration and reflection, for not consulting God, for not asking for his permission and his help?

How foolish! Let each one examine himself on this point with all diligence, said our Father, and make the consequent resolution: never to make a hasty resolution, never to make any decision of any importance without considering it before God in prayer and in Communion, and without the advice of a prudent and discreet person who can, by his authority and his conditions, guide us effectively.

This possibility of doing harm through lightness, even if it is far from our intention, must lead us to be humble, without considering ourselves above the advice and dispositions that come to us from the directors and that are the fruit of prayer, of the supernatural sense, of charity, of experience and the light received from God. How indispensable it is to acquire that disposition - to know how to listen - which helps us to listen fruitfully to the advice of those who can give it to us, because they have more knowledge and more authority than we do! In this way it will also be prevented - let us pray that this will happen - from creating an atmosphere of aversion and detachment towards the one who commands, through forgetfulness and disregard for his words.

Rectitude of intention: doing things to please God.

CHILDREN, always have great confidence in the Father and in those who represent the Father, who have a very special grace from the Lord to love you very much, to understand you, to excuse you, to help you, to be the strength that your weakness needs. Like me, in my misery, I am strengthened by your virtue, by your triumphant struggle, and sometimes also defeated, but always with pain and repentance.

Never let yourselves be carried away by the temptation of thinking that the directors command or condition you in some way. How is it possible for an intelligent person to complain that there are people who govern? He who has no directors, has bosses, or a woman who dominates him, or some neighbors with whom he gets angry, or the municipal guard who does not allow him to throw cigarette butts on the ground. That is why I would like you to make a definite, determined resolution: Lord, quae tibi sunt placita, quae tibi sunt placita!

When we do things only to please God, then we put more love and more sacrifice. We do not think about whether they have material importance, neither too much nor too little: we give them the importance, putting more affection into order to please God: Lord, I would not do it; but this, which is an indifferent or good thing, I will undertake for you. And that, children, becomes a colossal work. The alchemists of other centuries worked in vain to find the philosopher’s stone, which would allow them to turn all metals into gold. And we turn the most material and smallest things into the glory of Heaven, because God does not cease to assist us so that, always thinking according to right reason, we may speak and act in such a way that we always please Him.

To seek to please God in everything presupposes to love obedience exquisitely, because through it a good part of the divine Will comes to us for us. Our Father often asked us: do you know how to obey? because he was aware of the importance of this virtue for the smooth running of the apostolate, as he wrote in The Way: obey in your apostolate … , the only way: because, in a work of God, the spirit must be obey or leave. As we reflect now, in our prayer, on this fundamental point of examination, we surely come to the thought-firm and true-that we want to obey always and in everything. The Gospel passage we are considering teaches us that it is not enough to want to obey in order to know how to obey. A soul that truly seeks to please God in everything strives to listen in order to identify its will with that of God. “The one who best listens to and obeys God is the one who does not care to hear him say what he wants, but strives to want what God says to him.”

An attentive, faithful and unreserved listening, which puts all their faith at stake, because God knows best. We are well convinced that “God does not need our work but our obedience”. A loving and universal obedience, because the obedience of a corpse, our Father said, does not interest me. I do not want corpses at my side: I bury corpses piously. Therefore, voluntary obedience, of living people with intelligence, with love for God and with a sense of responsibility. It must be a universal obedience: in everything. There are no specialists in docility: here, in this subject, we are all specialized in all things. And prompt obedience. I often like to make this comparison: all the pieces of the clock move at a rhythm. If a piece malfunctions, the clock is delayed. … Be convinced of the damage and inefficiency caused by delaying obedience.

At the end of our prayer, we turn to Mary Most Holy, the Handmaid of the Lord, always attentive to God’s will. We ask her to obtain for us the grace we need to imitate her in her docility full of love.