Today,
the Gospel shows us a leper, painfully conscious of his sickness,
approaching Jesus and beseeching: «Sir, if you want to, you can
make me clean» (Mt 8:2). When we see the Lord so close
to us but our head, heart and hands so far away from his project,
from their salvation, we should also feel the compulsion to formulate
the same leper's expression: «Sir, if you want to, you can make
me clean».
But
an important question prevails: Can a sin-unconscious society beg
forgiveness from our Lord? Can it beseech a purification of any kind?
We all know too many people with aching and wounded hearts, their
personal drama, however, being they do not always realize the extent
of their situation. But, in spite of everything, Jesus is always
close to us, to the very end of the age (cf. Mt 28:20), while
waiting for the same petition: «Sir, if you want to...».
But, our collaboration is, of course, needed. St. Augustine's
sentence: «God who created you without you, will not save you
without you» has become a classical one. So that we can truly
change we must strive to ask our Lord for help.
Some might wonder: why
is it so important to realize it, to convert and to wish to change?
For the simple reason that, should we not feel like that, we should
not be able to positively answer the previous question, where we said
a sin-unconscious society will find it very difficult to ask the Lord
for help.
This is why, when the
moments of repentance and of Sacramental confession arrive, we have
to get rid of the past, of all the ulcers infecting our body and our
soul. We should not doubt it for a minute: Asking forgiveness is a
great moment of Christian initiation, because it is when the bandage
over our eyes comes off. But, what if someone does notice his
situation but does not want to convert? There is an old proverb that
goes: «Long absent, soon forgotten».
