Cleansing of a Leper

February 14, 2021, Sunday
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
RDGS: LV 13:1-2. 44-46/ PS 32:1-2. 5. 11/ 1 COR 10:31--11:1
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.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

Jesus, the compassionate one, enters fully into the human mess of our lives. Leprosy was the most dreaded of diseases in his day. Jesus risks conflict and division for the sake of a nobody who was suffering exclusion and isolation from family and community. The leper approaches in confident trust and Jesus touches his sore, leprous body. Lord, how do I approach you in prayer? Begging, kneeling, and asking for what I want? Let me feel your touch.

PRAYER:

Touch me, Lord. Touch the ugly bits of me that I do not like to look at. If you will, you can make me clean.