Six Sunday in year A

Martin was a young soldier in the Roman army. Elegantly dressed, he was mounted on his horse one day when he was accosted by a leper begging for alms. The sight and the stench of rotting flesh was so repulsive to the sensitivities of young Martin that his first instincts were to ride off on his horse. But something inside him made his walk up to the beggar. Since all he had was his military coat, he cut it in two and gave half to the leper while he wrapped himself with the other half. It was a very cold winter day. That night in his dream he saw Christ clothed in a half coat saying to the angels around his throne, “Martin has clothed me with his garment.” This event was the turning point in the life of him who was to become St Martin of Tours.


Good morning every one. I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today to celebrate love. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we are given the divine gift to experience the healing power of Christ our Lord. Every time we come to church we are asked to be healers of others especially those who are away from the divine love of God and every time we come to church we ourselves become the healing of Christ.

The misery of the leper
One day a man saw a little white spot on his hand and then he showed to his wife saying, “this is strange and I washed and washed, it still stays on my hand. What is this?” His wife looked at the white spot on his hand and said, “my dear husband, it is nothing. God is always good to us and He blessed us with beautiful children. You have a good job and we practice our faith and nothing will happen to us. Let us bless the Lord always but the husband was not happy so the wife said to him, “let us give few more days and see” a week later, they noticed so many white spots on his hands and they even began to oozed fluid.

She then said to her husband, “Go to our priest and show to him because in those days priests were also health officials. The priest quarantined or separated him from the rest of the community and kept him for fourteen more days to see what kind of skin disease he had. Then on the fourteenth day, the priest called the man and every one from the community and said to the man, “you have leprosy. You are banished from the community because you are unclean and thus he gave him a bell saying, anytime you see a person you have to scream ringing the bell, “I am unclean, unclean”. So the man was removed from the society and was put in an isolated place to die.
The mercy of the Lord
In the leper colony, he heard people talking to each other about a holy man saying, “His name is Jesus. He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, makes the lamb walk and even He raises the dead to life” when he heard the miracles and wonders of Christ, the leper developed a deep faith in Christ and then he began to look for him. But many years went by, but Jesus never showed up. Nevertheless the man never lost his faith; he strongly believed that Christ would one day pass that way. As he hoped Christ the Lord was passing through that region and he rushed to Christ. This time he did not say, I am unclean, unclean or he did not ring the bell instead he cried out with the loud voice and said to Christ, “Lord, Jesus heal me” Jesus our Lord stretched out His hands and touched him physically, emotionally and spiritually and said, ‘Be made clean”
The man never lost faith in Christ. The man never lost hope in Him and thus he who experienced the healing power of Christ went everywhere to proclaim the good news of love.
Conclusion:

Today we are asked to preach the good news of Christ our Lord, today we are asked to stretch out our hands and touch people who are in need and thus they may come to know that they are not alone but Christ is with them. Amen.