11 February, 2024 | Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time (World Day of the Sick)

 Reading I Lv 13:1-2, 44-46 | Reading II 1 Cor 10:31—11:1

Gospel Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 

touched him, and said to him, 

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,

but go, show yourself to the priest 

and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.

He spread the report abroad

so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

He remained outside in deserted places,

and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Reflection:

In the gospel, we see how Jesus encountered the leper, and the leper encountered Jesus and out of this encounter something wondrous happened. To a desperate demand, “If You want to, you can cure me.”, Jesus responded with a demanding decision, “Of course I want to. Be cured.” From this encountered we came to realised that Jesus came to seek and save what was lost. He came for the sick, not the healthy. He came for the sinners, not for the saints.

When Jesus looked at the leper, He was not looking at the disfigurement. Jesus looked beyond and into the leper’s heart, which was broken by separation and rejection, a heart disfigured by pain and rejection.

Today, Jesus is looking at each one of us and what does He see? As we look at ourselves in the mirror, what do we see? It is not what we are looking at that really matters, but what we see. We may not suffer from leprosy, but the hurts and pains of this life eat us up.  That’s when we must turn to Jesus and plead, And Jesus will respond, “Of course I want to. Be cured.”

Activity:

Like the leper in the gospel, in humility plead for forgiveness from your faults and ask Jesus to make you clean.