Scripture:
Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
Matthew 8:1-4
Reflection:
The leper’s humility… “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” Such a simple prayer, and how often do we say, “Lord, not my will but yours be done?” In this world today, we need miracles. We are weak humans, sometimes, and sometimes we are allowed a miracle to confirm our faith, or just to wake us up to the proof of the possibilities of God’s endless love and compassion for us.
The leper was despised, shunned, ignored, segregated, and feared. He was nothing to those who walked past him. And he was breaking the law by being on the street because of the vile disease he carried. But what does Jesus say? “I do choose. Be made clean!” Place yourself on that street with the leper and Jesus. Can you feel the joy in the leper’s entire being as Jesus affirms that he will heal him? And the leper knowing that Jesus should have been tending the crowds, and not tending to the leper! Jesus went to him, answered him, and healed him. And now the leper can return to being a member of his community. Can you imagine the feeling of love and joy in the loving embraces he received from a community who may have forgotten him, written him off because everyone knew there was no coming back from leprosy?
We all want that experience of divine healing – if not for us, maybe for a family member or friend. We pray for it, we ask God for that special miracle. And we wait. Sometimes patiently, sometimes not. At Jesus’ table, there are no outcasts – all are welcome, all are loved, all are special and valuable. Is this the way you treat people you meet, the homeless on the street?
Lord, if you choose… Not my will but yours be done.
Patty Masson is the Director of Adult Formation and Evangelization at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Spring, Texas.