Do everything for the glory of God

Leprosy carried with it a social stigma in Old Testament times. Because of the infectious nature of the disease, the laws of Moses stipulated that the inflicted person “shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of their head be disheveled” and cried out “Unclean, unclean” so that people could keep a safe distance from catching the disease from them (Lv 13:1-2). These people should also be isolated from their community and “… live alone with their dwelling outside the camp.” (Lv 13: 45-46). What the lepers suffered was devastating. They suffered not only a physical isolation from family and community but from emotional isolation as well.

In this Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus healed a man of his leprosy out of compassion for him. When the leprosy left the person, Jesus instructed him to go at once to show himself to the priest and offered for his cleansing what Moses commanded so that he could return to his family and his community. By directing the person to the priest, Jesus, the Son of God attributed the healing to the glory of God; He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill. (cf Mt 5:17)

Saint Paul in the Second Reading taught us to imitate him as he himself imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1) and Paul himself did everything for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31) Let us strive to live this out in our own lives when we encounter a neighbor in need, the sick, the elderly, those abandoned by society, and do things for them, we must remind ourselves that we are doing these things not to seek attention, not for personal glory or fame, but for the glory of God. Even obnoxious work for undeserving or ungrateful people in the eyes of the world becomes meaningful and even appealing to us if we do it for the glory of God. As we do things for the glory of God, as we raise our hearts and minds to God, we will find peace, serenity, fulfilment and enrichment in our own lives.