6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

PURIFIED BY FAITH
From a commentary by Paschasius Radbertus 1
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However great our sinfulness, each one of us can be healed by God
every day. We have only to worship him with humility and love, and wherever
we are, to say with faith: Lord, if you want to you can make me clean. It is by
believing from the heart that we are justified, so we must make our petitions
with utmost confidence, and without the slightest doubt of God’s power. If
we pray with a faith springing from love, God’s will need be in no doubt. He
will be ready and able to save us by an all-powerful command. He
immediately answered the leper’s request, saying: I do want to. Indeed, no
sooner had the leper begun to pray with faith than the Savior’s hand began
to cure him of his leprosy.

This leper is an excellent teacher of the right way to make petitions. He
did not doubt the Lord’s willingness through disbelief in his compassion, but
neither did he take it for granted, for he knew the depths of his own
sinfulness. Yet because he acknowledged that the Lord was able to cleanse
him if he wished, we praise this declaration of firm faith just as we praise the
Lord’s mighty power. For obtaining a favor from God rightly depends as
much on having a real living faith as on the exercise of the Creator’s power
and mercy. If faith is weak, it must be strengthened, for only then will it
succeed in obtaining health of body or soul. The Apostle’s words, purifying
their hearts by faith referred, surely, to strong faith like this. And so if the
hearts of believers are purified by faith, we must give thought to this virtue
of faith, for, as the Apostle says, Anyone who doubts is like a wave in the sea.

A faith shown to be living by its love, steadfast by its perseverance,
patient by its endurance of delay, humble by confession. Strong by its
confidence, reverent by its way of presenting petitions, and discerning with
regard to their content – such a faith may be certain that in every place it will
hear the Lord sating: I do want to.

Pondering this wonderful reply put the words together in their proper
sequence. The leper began: Lord, if you want to, and the Savior said: I do
want to. The leper continued: You can make me clean, and the Lord spoke
his powerful word of command: Be clean. All that the sinner’s true confession
maintained with faith, love and power immediately conferred. And in case
the gravity of his sins should make anyone despair, another Evangelist says
this man who was cured had been completely covered with leprosy. For all
have sinned and forfeited the glory of God. Since, as we rightly believe, God’s
power is operative everywhere, we ought to believe the same of his will, for
his will is that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

1

Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 80-81.