FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY READINGS, GOSPEL COMMENTARY AND SERMON.
“Be made clean” (Lk 5:12–16)
FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY READINGS
READING I
1 Jn 5:5–13
Who (indeed) is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are of one accord. If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Zion, praise your God!
He has strengthened the bars of your gates,
he has blessed the children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He established peace on your borders,
he feeds you with finest wheat.
He sends out his word to the earth
and swiftly runs his command.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He makes his word known to Jacob,
to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other nations;
He has not taught them his decrees.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
ALLELUIA
Jesus preached the Good News of the Kingdom and healed all who were sick.
GOSPEL
Lk 5:12–16
Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately. Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
GOSPEL COMMENTARY
This brief Gospel passage teaches us the following profound ideas:
- When we ask Our Lord for something, we must ask it with HUMILITY —the leper FELL PROSTRATE and PLEADED Our Lord—a very striking image which manifests the leper’s indigent condition, humbly asking for God’s mercy.
- In our petitions, we should give PRIMACY TO WHAT GOD WANTS and not to what we want. “If you WISH”, the leper told Our Lord, indicating his RESPECT FOR GOD’S WILL for He knows better than us.
- Utterly different from the usual reaction of the Jews of his time who had neither qualms nor scruples in eluding the leper, Jesus, “stretched out his hand, TOUCHED HIM” clearly showing us an example of COMPASSION TOWARDS THE SICK, THE OUTCAST, THE MARGINALIZED, TOUCHING THE UNTOUCHABLE!
WHAT ABOUT US? DO WE HAVE AN INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE TOWARDS THOSE WHO SUFFER: THE POOR, THE SICK, THE STREET CHILDREN, THE BEGGARS….? In his message for Lent 2015, Pope Francis invites us to
“ask the Lord: ‘Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum’: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference .”
Pope Francis, Message for Lent 2015
VIDEO COMMENTARY
TOPIC: DO YOU HAVE A “SMALL” SIN THAT CAN POTENTIALLY BECOME BIG?
In today’s gospel reading (Luke 5:12-16), Jesus heals a leper. The leper makes a plea to Jesus – “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” With advances in medicine today, the World Health Organization reports that there are about 208,000 cases, as of 2018. It starts off with one or a few patches of flat, pale-colored skin. Every sin starts small, too. What must we do to prevent it from getting bigger?
The mystery of the Lord’s baptism
A sermon of St. Maximus of Turin
The Gospel tells us that the Lord went to the Jordan River to be baptized and that he wished to consecrate himself in the river by signs from heaven. Reason demands that this feast of the Lord’s baptism, which I think could be called the feast of his birthday, should follow soon after the Lord’s birthday, during the same season, even though many years intervened between the two events.
At Christmas he was born a man; today he is reborn sacramentally. Then he was born from the Virgin; today he is born in mystery. When he was born a man, his mother Mary held him close to her heart; when he is born in mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice when he says: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him. The mother caresses the tender baby on her lap; the Father serves his Son by his loving testimony. The mother holds the child for the Magi to adore; the Father reveals that his Son is to be worshipped by all the nations.
That is why the Lord Jesus went to the river for baptism; that is why he wanted his holy body to be washed with Jordan’s water. Someone might ask, “Why would a holy man desire baptism?” Listen to the answer: Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched. For the consecration of Christ involves a more significant consecration of the water.
For when the Saviour is washed, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages. Christ is the first to be baptized, then, so that Christians will follow after him with confidence. I understand the mystery as this. The column of fire went before the sons of Israel through the Red Sea so they could follow on their brave journey; the column went first through the waters to prepare a path for those who followed. As the apostle Paul said, what was accomplished then was the mystery of baptism. Clearly it was baptism in a certain sense when the cloud was covering the people and bringing them through the water.
But Christ the Lord does all these things: in the column of fire he went through the sea before the sons of Israel; so now, in the column of his body, he goes through baptism before the Christian people. At the time of the Exodus the column provided light for the people who followed; now it gives light to the hearts of believers. Then it made a firm pathway through the waters; now it strengthens the footsteps of faith in the bath of baptism.
COLLECT
Grant, we ask, almighty God, that the Nativity of the Savior of the world, made known by the guidance of a star, may be revealed ever more fully to our minds. Through our Lord.
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