IT HAPPENED

Luke 5:5-13; Ps 147 Praise the Lord, Jerusalem; Luke 5:12-16

"It happened…"

This is  how the gospel begins this day at the Mass.

It  happened…

This is how any day and every day begins in our lives in the lives of those around us.

How many times has someone began a story about an incident in their life or the life of those around them with the words, "It happened…"

Life happens ad many things in life happen as well.  Some of them we are ready for and we anticipate with great delight: birth of a child, wedding of a friend, a raise in pay, a nice vacation.


Some of them we resist such as news that it is cancer, car accident that has injured someone we love, diagnosis that leaves us shocked, a divorce,  an injury to a child, or death of a loved one.

It happens.

But we can learn front he gospel.

"It happened that there was a man full of  leprosy in one of these towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, please with him and said, 'Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.' Jesu stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, I do will it.  BE made clean."


It happened where something awful becomes transformed not by the touch of Jesus but by the offering of it to him.  The leper offered his reality to Jesus and laid it at his feet.  Jesus received the gift and in that exchange something beautiful happens.

It isn't just about flesh that is made whole but about a soul that is filled with life.

The leper never says why me or how come.  He just simply offers it to Jesus as is.

He lets Jesus touch him.  And in order to do so he had to let down his defenses, his guards, his own stubbornness.  He had to stop fighting who he was and accept it.

Only in acceptance was he able to surrender and open himself up to the touch of Christ.

It happened.  May it happen again to us daily.