Will you kiss the leper clean…

…If I but call your name?

These are some of the lyrics from the song “The Summons Hymn” that stills my voice at church.  Aside from remembering a day in the life of St. Francis of Assisi, these lyrics cause a crushing introspection within me. 

 As I listen to others sing those haunting words, I am lost in a personal confession.   It is the very sin in me that acknowledges my revulsion to this request balanced by the compassion of Christ I continue to nourish within me.   These words encourage me to relinquish vainglory so I may attain true humility.  It is the very prayer that erupts from the depths of my new heart and begs, “Create a clean heart in me O’ Lord!” It is the very grace of prayer that not so much asks for healing for the leper with an extraordinary miracle, but rather a bigger miracle…for me to love the leper regardless of his or her painful disguise. 

Let your heart “hear” the full verse:

Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

This difficult requests beckons our hearts to God’s will and vision for our life.   Although our hearts sorrow in the debt we could never pay, we still must conclude that a life for Christ will cost us everything.  This life for the One who makes all things new necessitates us to survive this Christian journey by the grace of prayer. It is the Christian’s very transformation through incessant prayer towards the glow of sainthood that lifts high their personal cross for Christ.  It is the soul’s clarion cry that echoes, “Create a clean heart in me O’ Lord!,” that abandons everything for love so as to gain just a glimpse through the divine eyes of forgiveness.

Would you?  Could you… kiss the leper clean – if He called your name?

He lives,

Chris 

The Summons Hymn

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me..