Thursday, January 16
1st Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Heb 3:7-14
Gospel: Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and begged him, "If you so will, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." The leprosy left the man at once and he was made clean. As Jesus sent the man away, he sternly warned him, "Don't tell anyone about this, but go and show yourself to the priest and for the cleansing bring the offering ordered by Moses; in this way you will make your declaration."

However, as soon as the man went out, he began spreading the news everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter any town. But even though he stayed in the rural areas, people came to him from everywhere.

Gospel Commentary

Compassion allows Jesus to see beyond the physical suffering of the leper into his isolation and loneliness. And so, even though it was not necessary for the leper's healing, Jesus "stretched out his hand and touched him." This was probably the first human touch the leper had experienced in years, condemned as he was by Jewish law, to excommunicate himself from society. With this touch, Jesus rendered himself ritually impure, becoming tainted, as it were, with the stain of the leper. But this seems to be of no concern to Jesus. His sole desire is that one isolated and excluded from human community experience contact and communion once again.

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