In today’s readings, we clearly see that God work His power through miracles, as shown in the First Reading where Paul mentioned that God worked miracles through the forty years of Israel’s wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt and after their disobedience which caused God to make them to wonder for forty years to atone for their sins, and in the Gospel, where Jesus cured the leper and made him clean.

However, we can note that despite all of the miracles and deeds that the Lord had done, despite all the manna the people of Israel had eaten, and the other numerous miracles through the forty years, the people’s hearts remain distant from God, and they even frequently rebelled against Him by worshipping foreign gods of the Midians and the nations around them.

Compare this with the attitude of the people and the leper in the Gospel, where the leper believed in Jesus and through his faith, he was cured of his leprosy. Despite being told not to spread the word of Jesus’ miracle, the man spread the news to all, who began to come to Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus is God, but as it was not yet His time to reveal His divinity, He wanted to keep His ministry secret in a low-profile manner, and not to boast of His great power. But the people’s reactions is the complete opposite of the people in the First Reading, where they instead of rebelling against the Lord, they came to the Lord and they sought the Lord.

Paul warned the people to always stay close to God, especially in their hearts, and to encourage one another in their goal to stay close to God, and to always keep hope in Christ and not to fall into the traps of sin and evil. The people in the first reading represent the old self, who despite of God’s grace and blessing, hardened their hearts and their soul against the love of God. God is loving and merciful, but He also hates sin and disobedience, just as He showed when Adam and Eve disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden. We, as humans, have pride in our hearts, and we tend to stay in our sinful ways and avoid God, too proud to humble ourselves to seek God in our daily lives, and content to be carried astray by the pleasures of this world.

However, the Gospel brought about the second type of people, the ones we should aspire to become, a people who are humble, who are willing to seek God even beyond their comfort, to go the extra mile ‘into the wilderness’ to seek God, to seek His forgiveness, and to bask in His love and mercy. The leper represents us, we who are healed by God of our afflictions, both through Baptism, and through the grace and blessings of God. Just as Paul mentioned, the leper, who represents us, should spread the news of the love of God to all, to those who are yet to hear the Good News, and in particular to those whose hearts are hardened against the Lord in their pride. In our daily lives, in our homes, in our families, and with our friends, with every simple things that we do, we should reflect this by living our faith through our good deeds and actions, so that everyone can see the Lord and His love through us. If we are able to do so, God will bless us, and we will be with Christ until the end, and when we go to His Kingdom, He will open the door and welcome you with the words, “Welcome friend, I know you, and through your humility and charity, and your ceaseless support of one another for My sake, you have merited eternal life.”

May God bless all of us, and may He grant us strength and humility, that we can indeed seek the Lord for forgiveness of our sins, and open ourselves to His love, and not to forget to spread this love to all around us, that all of us together, will be with Christ, and in Christ, we are saved. Amen.