Thursday in the First Week of Ordinary Time

Scripture Readings: 1 Sam 4:1-11;  Mk  1:40-45    

Pimples, boils, ulcers, blisters, lumps, swellings, tumors, blotches, rashes, growths, cysts, welts, polyps, scabs, sores, and ugly scars.  That’s what the leper was suffering!  But look past all his physical disease and ugliness, look into his soul and we find a beautiful person full of reverence and abandonment. 

This man knows how to pray.  Kneeling before Jesus, he says, “If you will you can make me clean.”  He puts the will of Jesus before his own.  This good man will reverence and love God even if he is not healed.  His poor body is full of pimples, boils, ulcers, blisters, lumps, swellings, tumors, blotches, rashes, growths, cysts, welts, polyps, scabs, sores, and ugly scars, but his heart and soul are beautiful.  Here, at the beginning of his ministry Jesus teaches us how to pray by the example of the reverence and abandonment of this good leper.