All of us are called to fidelity to the Lord our God, to be Holy as our Heavenly Father is Holy. Therefore, it is not meant to be a journey in which we all go our separate ways trying to reach our final destination on our own. We are sisters and brothers, children of God our Heavenly Father and so we journey as One in Christ. How then can we say we do not belong or are not part of any community? The real question for us is how many have we helped along our pilgrim journey? How many have encountered the presence of our Lord through us? Do we get to see how much they have grown in their faith and in their relationship with Lord? How everyone loves one another and are encouraging one another to go deeper? Have we sacrificed ourselves such that we are willing to lay down our lives to save another?
In His compassion and love we see Jesus a healing a leper an untouchable who called out to Him in faith. Jesus healed in Him not only in word but laid His hand and touched Him. Someone loved Him enough to touch him, someone fully man and yet carried the divine touch of God. By doing so Jesus set the leper who had to live in seclusion far away from society free! Free to live fully in His love. Jesus in sense became the ‘leper’ for He could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. The leper had to make an offering which consisted of two birds, one as a sacrifice and the other dipped in the blood of the first’s sacrifice was set free. Jesus would do the same for all of us. The lamb of God would lay down His live for us all so that we can be set free!
Jesus my Lord I love You with all my heart! Let me be bring You glory by loving and serving my brethren as I am called to do. Amen
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First reading
Hebrews 3:7-14 ·
Keep encouraging one another
The Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness, when your ancestors challenged me and tested me, though they had seen what I could do for forty years. That was why I was angry with that generation and said: How unreliable these people who refuse to grasp my ways! And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. Take care, brothers, that there is not in any one of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end.
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Gospel
Mark 1:40-45
The leprosy left the man at once, and he was cured
A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
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