SPEAKER_00: There's something heartbreaking about the first reading.
SPEAKER_00: The city of Jerusalem is burning.
SPEAKER_00: The temple, the very place where God's presence dwelt among his people, is consumed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: The palace is destroyed, the walls are torn down.
SPEAKER_00: The king watches his own sons die before his eyes, and his own eyes are taken from him.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is lost.
SPEAKER_00: But this tragedy does not happen overnight.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem did not fall because Babylon was stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem fell because for generations the people slowly turned away from God.
SPEAKER_00: That's how sin usually works.
SPEAKER_00: Very few people wake up one morning and decide to ruin their lives.
SPEAKER_00: It happens little by little, one compromise, one excuse, one neglected prayer, one resentment that is never forgiven, one habit that slowly becomes a chain of addiction.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is not simply breaking God's rule.
SPEAKER_00: Sin slowly tears down the walls that protect the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually the once seemed impossible becomes inedible.
SPEAKER_00: The destruction of Jerusalem is not simply ancient history, it's a warning about ever to every human heart, because every one of us has walls that protect us.
SPEAKER_00: Prayers, the sacraments, confession, the Eucharist, daily fidelity.
SPEAKER_00: When those walls are neglected, the enemy doesn't need to force his way in.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually the walls collapse on their own.
SPEAKER_00: Then the gospel gives us an extraordinary contrast.
SPEAKER_00: A leper comes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have to remember leprosy in the scriptures becomes a powerful image of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it isolates, it spreads, it slowly destroys, and makes a person believe they no longer belong.
SPEAKER_00: But notice something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: The leper says, Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't question Christ's power.
SPEAKER_00: He only wonders about his willingness.
SPEAKER_00: How many people shriek secretly wonder the same thing?
SPEAKER_00: I know God can forgive other people.
SPEAKER_00: I know he heals saints, but after what I've done, would he would he really want to heal me?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus answers with only four words I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, I want to.
SPEAKER_00: God does not reluctantly forgive.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to restore.
SPEAKER_00: Then comes the most astonishing moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus touches the leper.
SPEAKER_00: No one in those days touched a leper.
SPEAKER_00: Touching one made you ceremonially unclean.
SPEAKER_00: But with Jesus the opposite happens.
SPEAKER_00: The uncleanness does not pass to him.
SPEAKER_00: His holiness passes to the leper.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not contaminated by our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are transformed by his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Every confession is another moment where Christ reaches out his hand and says, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Be made clean.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some of us have slowly allowed the walls of our spiritual life to crumble.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe our prayer life is not what it should be.
SPEAKER_00: It's occasional.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we've been away from the confessional.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we've convinced ourselves that we've gone too far.
SPEAKER_00: Today's gospel says otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how much has been destroyed, Christ can always rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how deep the wound, Christ can heal.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how long we've carried our spiritual leprosy, his mercy is greater.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the city of Jerusalem had to rebuild stone by stone.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are rebuilt the same way.
SPEAKER_00: One confession, one holy communion, one act of faith, one day of fidelity.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ, who once stretched out his hand to touch the leper, still stretches his hand today to you.
SPEAKER_00: Not to condemn us, but to restore what sin has destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.