Friday after Epiphany
(I John 5:5-13; Luke 5:12-13)
If faith is necessary to experience a miracle, the leper in
today’s gospel easily qualifies for healing.
He does not doubt a bit Jesus’ power to heal. “If you wish,” he tells Jesus with the
confidence of a child appealing to his grandmother for a favor, “you can make
me clean.”
Jesus’ willingness to help the leper is even more remarkable. He might have kept his distance and pronounced
a healing. But he cares about the leper
so much that he makes physical contact. Not
only is he risking contagion, he is also making himself ritually unclean.
Both the leper’s faith and Jesus’ compassion merit our attention
and imitation. Full trust in Jesus will
bring us startling results. Suffering with
others will even more wonderfully mark us as heirs of heaven.
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