TODAY'S WORD

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Mark: 1:40-41 "A leper came to Him begging Him, and kneeling he said to Him, “If You choose, You can make me clean.”  Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”


TODAY'S REFLECTION

In today’s first reading, the author calls on the Christians he is addressing to ‘keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end’. 


He wants them to keep the faith to the end, to endure in their living out of their faith in Christ. 


If this is to happen, he knows that they will need to support one another. 


That is why he also calls on them to ‘keep encouraging one another’. 


We need to encourage one another in the faith, to support what is best in each other, if our faith in the Lord, and the way of life that flows from it, is to endure to the end. 


We find a striking example of that ministry of encouragement in today’s gospel reading. 


The leper would have lived a very isolated life. Far from receiving any encouragement, he was shunned by all. 


He was made to feel that his physical condition, which cut him off from others, also cut him off from God. 


In throwing himself at the feet of Jesus, he was hoping and trusting that in Jesus he would finally find someone who would reveal to him God’s encouraging and life-giving love. 


His hope and trust would not be disappointed. Jesus healed him of his leprosy not only with a word but with a touch. 


Jesus often healed people by means of his word, ‘Be cured’, but here was someone who needed to be touched. 


He needed to know that God, working in Jesus, could break through his life-draining isolation. 


As a result of his encounter with Jesus, with God, the leper who had lived in isolation became an evangelist, telling his good news story to others, everywhere. 

Jesus reveals a God who always wants to break through whatever isolation in which we find ourselves. 

The Lord does not do social distancing; 

he touches us, especially when we are at our most vulnerable and isolated; 

he encourages us, working to build us up, to put new courage and strength into us. 

All we need in response is something of the trusting and hopeful faith of the leper

Each of us are called with a specific mission and purpose in life...

It requires a deep commitment.

It requires an identification with the people and situation.

>> It requires a complete giving of oneself to the cause and mission.


QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Am I ready to embrace such a dedication?

St Paul invites us to be "... imitators of Christ" just as he imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1)

Let us remain open to this Invitation of the Lord, and not close our hearts… “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test…” (Heb 3:8-9)


Let us imitate Christ in His deep commitment and dedication.

Let us imitate Christ who came to bring healing to all in this world.


RESOLUTION

Let us resolve to imitate Christ who shared in our sufferings to bring redemption and joy.

HAPPY FEAST OF THE HARVEST FESTIVAL. LET US PRAY FOR OUR FARMERS.