Thursday of the First Week of Ordinary Time Lectio: Mark 1:40–45 Meditatio: “He spread the report abroad …” Today’s Gospel starts out dramatically: a man with leprosy approaches Jesus, falls to his knees, and makes a striking act of faith: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus does will it. With a word and a touch, Jesus heals the man and then gives him the impossible command: “See that you tell no one anything.…” Not only was the healed man totally incapable of obeying that command, but he was also amazingly effective in proclaiming what Jesus did for him. A real networker, he “began to publicize the whole matter”; “he spread the report abroad so that … people kept coming to [Jesus] from everywhere.” A similar thing happened in the 1950s with a Franciscan community in the Midwest. One of the elderly priests, Solanus Casy, was being transferred back to the friary in Detroit for health care. The problem was that Father Solanus was renowned in the area because of the astounding healings that came about through his prayers. If the people of Detroit learned that their beloved Father Solanus was back, the community would be mobbed. The brothers managed to keep quiet, but the superiors hadn’t taken the media into account. A newspaper report of the Capuchin community’s one-hundredth anniversary put Father Solanus on the front page, and the doorbell began ringing. When he died (within the year), some 10,000 people came to pay their respects to the man who taught them to “thank God ahead of time.” And still now, the whole world is waiting for a word about Jesus. Oratio Lord, you have not called me to be silent. Quite the contrary! “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). Yet sometimes I am hard put to find in myself the faith that the man with leprosy had, a faith that moved you so deeply. Today, help me to be extra alert to notice the subtle signs of your presence, your love, your grace. Then, with the man healed of leprosy, with Father Solanus, with your apostles after the resurrection, I would say “it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Contemplatio “Give thanks to the LORD who is good, whose love endures forever” (Ps 118:1). --Reflection by Daughters of St. Paul.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:36:57 +0000
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