(This homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde during the Mass celebrated at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia on June 25, in observance of the Feast of St. John the Baptist.)
I propose for our reflection three scenes or, using the language of art, a triptych.
The first of these scenes is depicted in the gospel passage just proclaimed in our hearing: Jesus healing the leper. See once more the leper, approaching Jesus, trembling with fear and expectation! How he longs to be healed! Doing Him homage, the leper says to Jesus, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” See too how Jesus immediately responds. “He stretched out His hand, touched him,” and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.” Finally see what happens. “His leprosy was cleansed immediately.” In the face of desperate need, Jesus responds with overwhelming and unfailing compassion
As we contemplate this first scene of our triptych, we so quickly acknowledge and affirm the need for healing within each of us, within the Church we love so dearly and within the society in which we live and move.
This brings us to the second scene of our triptych. Who indeed is the source of this profound and far-reaching healing? Is it not Jesus Himself, to Whom points our patron St. John the Baptist? Yes, in this second scene, we see St. John the Baptist, steadfastly and unrelentingly pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Savior of the world. Yesterday, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist and today, in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we recall our beloved patron and the timeless message he proclaimed and still proclaims: “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). “He must increase while I must decrease. " Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal. Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure the wrath of God” (Jn 3:30, 36). Yes, our patron keeps pointing to Jesus, because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf Jn 14:6), the only Savior of the world (cf Jn 3:17).
The third and final scene of our triptych is the Order of Malta, among whom we find ourselves privileged to be members. You and I must do now what our patron St. John the Baptist did in his day. We must point people towards Jesus by the witness of our daily Christian living. We must say, more with our lives than with our words; “There is Jesus, the Source of life, the very One in whom you can put your total trust! There is the One who will bring true and lasting healing to each of us, to our beloved Church and to our society.”
Fellow members of the Order of Malta, you and I are in need of inner healing. We are scarred by our past sins, each one of us “in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do” (cf. “Confiteor”). We need to approach Jesus in daily prayer, in the celebration of His Eucharistic Sacrifice and in the Sacrament of Penance and cry out with faith: “Lord, you can make me clean.” If we truly approach Him with faith and trust, He will indeed stretch out His merciful hand and touch us, so that we will be made clean and whole and new!
Fellow members of the Order of Malta, how much our beloved Church needs healing, so that the divisions within her, on the extreme left and on the extreme right, will be overcome, so that we may be truly one with that unity for which Christ prayed on the night before He died. How we need the healing of re-found and renewed unity, which is rooted in our following the guidance of God the Holy Spirit and results in our being one in the essentials of our Catholic faith as we continue to make our own the authentic agenda of the Holy Father, who is the source and center of our unity in Christ! The enemies of this unity include suspicion, fear, anger and a close-mindedness to Truth. Each day, do we not pray that we may overcome these enemies and bring about healing? “Be it mine to practice and defend the Catholic, the Apostolic, the Roman faith against the enemies of religion". ”
Fellow members of the Order of Malta, the society in which we live and move also needs much healing! So many of our sisters and brothers, around us and beyond us, experience the exile of poverty and sickness. So often, their poverty is found not in the material world but in the spiritual realm. So often, their illness is not only in body but also in spirit, in the soul. How they need the healing touch of Jesus to free them from their exile and to make them clean in mind, body and soul! Again, each day, do we not pray that such healing may be theirs? “In be it mine to practice charity towards my neighbors, especially the poor and the sick.”
Yes, the triptych projected before us deserves our careful reflection. Our patron St. John the Baptist points to Jesus, the source of true and lasting healing and urges us, as the Knights and Dames of Malta, to become living instruments of Christ's healing touch to one another, to the members of the Church and to those who live in our society.
Of course, we cannot be instruments of Christ's healing on our own. But, through prayer and penance, we allow the Lord Himself to so convert us, to so transform us that we become the visible and tangible expressions of His compassion and love. The more He increases within us, the more will He be present to all those with whom we come into contact. Through us, He will reach out and heal — to the glory of the Trinity and for the salvation of souls. Amen!
