Complete Healing

The WORD today (See http://usccb.org/bible/readings/011515.cfm) reminds me that God gives us complete healing.

During the time of Jesus, lepers were considered outcasts in society. They were unclean, and they were not allowed to mingle with people, so as not to make others unclean as well. Thus, they lived alone and away from the city and the people. This is where the man in the gospel is coming from. We see how desperate he was – when he kneeled and begged Jesus to clean him. Jesus did, and gave him more.

God is so generous and loving that he gives us more than we ask for.

The man asked to be made clean, but Jesus gave him more than that. He gave him the opportunity to be back in society, to be accepted again by the leaders. That is why he told him to show himself to the priest, so the priest may verify that he is clean already, and can accept him back to society. However, this is not automatic. Just as the man had to come to Jesus and ask to be healed, he must again do his part and go to the priest to be welcomed back to society. If he will not do his part, Jesus healing cannot take its full course.

God sees beyond our prayers. He knows what we need, even before we pray for them and even if we ourselves do not know it. May this move us to just trust in God, and do our part.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for loving me so much. Thank you for the reminder that you know what I need, even before I ask and even if I myself do not know it. Help me to have faith in you, your plans, and your word. May I do my part and obey and surrender to you. In a special way I lift up to you our country and Pope Francis as he starts his pastoral visit today. Bless, protect and be with him in a special way, and may we receive his message in our hearts. Amen.

Blessed day!

In Christ,

-g-

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January 15, 2015

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 308

Reading 1 Heb 3:7-14

The Holy Spirit says:

Oh, that today you would hear his voice,

“Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion

in the day of testing in the desert,

where your ancestors tested and tried me

and saw my works for forty years.

Because of this I was provoked with that generation

and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,

and they do not know my ways.’

As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

Take care, brothers and sisters,

that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,

so as to forsake the living God.

Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”

so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.

We have become partners of Christ

if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship;

let us kneel before the LORD who made us.

For he is our God,

and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

as in the day of Massah in the desert,

Where your fathers tempted me;

they tested me though they had seen my works.”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Forty years I was wearied of that generation;

I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,

they do not know my ways.”

Therefore I swore in my anger:

“They shall never enter my rest.”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Alleluia See Mt 4:23R.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom

and cured every disease among the people.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 1:40-45

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

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,

touched the leper, 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.

Then 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