UNCLEAN
“Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.” - Isaiah 1:16-17
Covid-19, chicken pox, whooping cough, measles, and the most dreaded of all- LICE. Anyone who has worked in a school or sent their own children off to school knows about the dreaded health office notifications that get sent home when a communicable disease is spreading throughout the classroom. Every scratch or bug bite could be signs of an infestation, every cough and sniffle a hint that the worst is yet to come. A friend recently recounted what he termed “a trip of a lifetime” that was derailed by a daycare outbreak hand, foot, and mouth disease, a painful viral rash with no cure that just runs its lengthy course.
This is not to mention ants, bed bugs, earwigs, mosquitos, and termites that invade our houses and sense of control. Like everyone else, our household has faced its share of gross, inconvenient, and annoying infestations. Is your skin crawling just thinking about these ailments? No amount of Clorox and Lysol completely takes away this feeling of “unclean”. As much as I fear these health notices, the ailments that spread rapidly in schools are often among the most benign, once you get past the “ick factor.” Cancers, autoimmune diseases, and other more serious afflictions take hold in silence, infecting their host until some symptom triggers awareness.
The cleansing in today’s readings is more spiritual than physical. Does my skin crawl just reading of the misdeeds and evils in the world? Do I close my ears to the orphans plea and the cries of the widow? The suffering and pain in the people around me should trigger the same visceral response as hearing about bed bugs, lice, and measles outbreaks. Throughout the Lenten season, the readings encourage us to “cleanse” our minds, bodies, and souls through fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. In order to more fully walk the road to Calvary with Jesus, I need to be more honest with myself and my own ambivalence about the root causes of my own struggles, as well as the needs of others.
One of my clearest memories as an altar server was washing the hands of the celebrant and hearing him pray quietly, “Wash me O Lord from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” It struck me how prayerfully and seriously he took these moments during the Eucharistic Prayer. As I prepare for Communion, have I also invited God to wash me of my sins and whatever prevents me fully receiving Him in the Eucharist?
Wash me, Lord. Wash away the fears, wash away the icky-ness, wash away the doubt. Cleanse my mind, my heart, and my spirit.
Jen Coito
Photo credit: Geetanjal Khanna on Unsplash