Homily for Friday After Epiphany

The request that the leper makes of Jesus — “If you wish, you can make me clean.” — is a challenge to us who now seek to follow Jesus. We possess within ourselves the resources to heal and restore our relationships with others — what is needed first is the will to put aside our own fears and doubts and interests to do so.

Christ promises us the grace to be imitators of His compassion and forgiveness whenever we are ready to take the first step in healing the wounds and cleaning the metaphorical "leprosy" that afflicts us and divides us from one another.+