saying, “I do want to; 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 give to them your testimony.” 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.
READ: A man with leprosy begged Jesus for healing, invoking the Lord’s goodwill. Moved with compassion,
Jesus made the leper clean. When cured of leprosy, the man received instructions from Jesus: not to tell
anyone, to present himself to the priest and to do the rituals for cleansing.
REFLECT: Lepers were considered as unclean people. They were separated from the community to avoid
contamination. Since they were segregated and people from the community did not have direct contact
with them, they were the ones to most unlikely receive chesed or act of loving-kindness from the people in
the community. The people’s goodwill was blurred. The goodwill supposedly aimed at others shifted the
focus to the self. In today’s Gospel, the man healed of leprosy first recognized Jesus’ unwavering goodwill,
a will that primarily considers the good of others. Jesus instructed the healed man to show himself to the
priest and performed the prescribed rituals. This was as if Jesus was telling the man, “You reach out to the
priest because he will not do his sacred duty of reaching out to you. Let your performance of the rituals be
the witness that you received chesed, the community’s sacred duty, of which you had been deprived of.”
PRAY: Let us pray that the community where we belong may truly be a community that exercises acts of
loving-kindness.
ACT: Let us do three concrete acts of loving-kindness this week to persons whom we see need chesed
the most this time.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2024