Friday after Epiphany

Readings: 1 John 5.5-13; Psalm 147; Luke 5.12-16

Some of what is happening in the world might lead us to think that withdrawing to a deserted place to pray, as Jesus does at the end of today's gospel, might be the best thing we could do at the beginning of this year. Natural disasters, wars underway and threats of wars, the climate crisis, crimes of violence and sexual abuse, the rates of abortion and suicide - it can all seem too much, leaving us feeling sad, fearful and impotent. The man Jesus encounters in the gospel today is 'full of leprosy', just as the world today can seem to be comprehensively sick. Jesus has resources, of course, that (it seems) we do not have: he can stretch out his hand and touch the man and heal him in an instant for this is what he wants: 'I do will it. Be made clean'.

The Word of God become flesh and dwelling among us, Jesus has come precisely to engage the world's sickness which he does by preaching the truth, by teaching the way of wisdom for human beings, by healing the sick, by sending the demons away. There is a rhythm of contemplation and action in his ministry. His whole hidden life, between the ages of twelve and thirty, is a kind of long contemplative preparation for his brief but revolutionary public ministry. During those years he grew in wisdom and in grace before God and before human beings. Once his ministry begins, however, his contemplative moments are few and far between, with people searching for him all the time.

Is it true, however, that he has resources we do not have? He says somewhere that those who believe in him will perform deeds as great as his, and even greater ones. His outstretched hand touching people now takes the form of the sacramental life of the Church - the water and the blood are witnesses to this, baptism and the Eucharist. His will to heal us and his command that banishes sickness now takes the form of his word preached in so many places every day, the way in which he is still saying to us, 'I will, be clean'. We are cleansed by the word he speaks, John tells us in his gospel (15.3).

And the Spirit is the third witness that accompanies the sacraments and the word, God's testimony within human beings which already establishes eternal life in those who receive it. In his letter John wants his readers to know that they have eternal life already, that they have been anointed with the Holy Spirit, that they have been made partakers of the divine nature (that's the second letter of Peter 1.4): in other words the resources available to Jesus have been shared with those who believe in him.

We also need contemplative moments in which to recover a sense of the gifts we have already received. Perhaps it is more urgent than ever at the beginning of this year with all that can weigh us down. As the world enters what seems like a darkening place it is more than ever urgent that we join Jesus in deserted places in order to pray. But urgent also that we do this not in order to escape what can seem overwhelming, a world 'full of leprosy', but in order to return, in this Jubilee year, to what we have been given as our possession, a share in His Spirit. If we have forgotten about that, or somehow lost contact with it, or have become alienated from it, then this is the time to return to it. It is our land and our inheritance, given us by the Lord. The Jubilee, or Holy Year, is a time for us to be cleansed and strengthened, enabled to shine as the lights in this dark world that we are called to be, people of truthfulness, justice, compassion and love. These are the resources that heal and save and God has made us co-workers with Christ to live and to act as he did, to practise these virtues and so, in our turn, heal and strengthen our world.