You Can Make Me Clean

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent.  It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.  The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.  1 Samuel 4:10-11

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”  Mark 1:40-41

Piety

Give to us an attitude of humility so that we may put your desires into our minds, into our hearts and onto our lips -- espousing them ahead of our own.

Study

In reading these two passages, we see the perennial tug between what we want and what God wants reflected in the attitude of the people who turn to the Lord.

After the first defeat recalled in Samuel, the army of Israel brings the Ark of the Covenant into camp to rally its troops for another battle with the Philistines.  In hope of their own honor and victory, the Ark is brought out of Shiloh.  When they go out a second time, they lose nearly ten times as many men in the second battle. The outcome of this is that the Ark is exiled into the possession of the Philistines, not unlike how Noah was exiled to the flood or Moses exiled to Egypt.

But in the Gospel reading, we see a different attitude reflected in the leper when he turns to Jesus.  The attitude of the leper is "If you wish, then you can make it so."  Clearly, the leper wants to be cured as much as the army wants to defeat the Philistines.  Putting God's wishes before our own, makes all the difference in the outcome.  The outcome here is that the Lord takes up residence in the heart of the healed leper who -- despite Jesus' request -- can not help but sing His praises throughout the land.

Action

How does this conflict between your desires and God's desires play out in your life?  We may not find ourselves on the literal battlefield, although we will face significant choices daily about what we do with our time, talent and treasure.  The challenge is how to we use all three to advance God's desires before our own.