I have something challenging coming up and was praying about it this morning. Providentially, my spiritual reading addressed it. Catching up on my Benedictus meditations, I read this from October 5th: "The soldier of Christ must begin by victory over himself."
The quote was from a work by St. Bonaventure about St. Francis. He told the story of Francis and the leper and how the saint, despite his disgust and aversion, dismounted from his horse and embraced the leper. What a "victory over himself" that was! And what a lesson for us. How many in our lives represent the leper? How hard is this or that person to love? And yet, we are invited to act like Christ, who gave His love for us. Wouldn't His attitude, God Himself, all perfect, all beautiful, be more likely to be disgusted and turn away in horror, regretting that He ever created us? But no, He didn't just create us; He loves us with an unfathomable love even when we turn away from Him through our sins.
I'm also reading St. Alphonsus and he gives an even more graphic story:
Suppose, by chance, that passing on your way you should have crushed to death a worm in your path, and then some one, observing your compassion for the poor reptile, should say to you, Well now, if you would restore that dead worm to life, you must first yourself become a worm like it, and then must shed all your blood, and make a bath of it in which to wash the worm, and so it shall revive; what would you reply? Certainly you would say, And what matters it to me whether the worm be alive or dead, if I should have to purchase its life by my own death? And much more would you do so if it was not an inoffensive worm, but an ungrateful asp, which in return for all your benefits, had made an attempt upon your life. But even should your love for that reptile reach so far as to induce you to suffer death in order to restore it to life, what would men say then? And what would not that serpent do for you, whose death had saved it, supposing it were capable of reason? But this much has Jesus Christ done for you, most vile worm; and you, with the blackest ingratitude, have tried oftentimes to take away his life; and your sins would have done so, were Jesus liable to die any more. How much viler are you in the sight of God than is the worm in your own sight?
Ouch! Do you feel the sting? Can we treat other "worms" as lepers when God has treated us like beloved sons and daughters even at our most wormlike? Will we be like the steward who, after receiving such mercy from his master, turned with vicious persecution on his fellow steward? I pray not.
St. Alphonsus goes on:
Nevertheless, this God had such a love for you that, to release you from eternal death, he first became a worm like you; and then to save you, would lavish upon you his heart's blood, even to the lsast drop, and endure the death which you had justly deserved.
Does that put a different perspective on the relationship with the "lepers" in your life? Are they not worthy to be treated with love and respect in imitation of our Divine Saviour? Hopefully, I will continue to remember this and act accordingly. Life is beautiful even in the midst of trials and sorrows. Let me, Lord, make every day a leper-kissing day!
May Jesus Christ be praised!
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