Thursday January 14

First Week In Ordinary Time

 

IF I COULD ONLY TOUCH HIM

 

Introduction

      The Letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish converts to Christianity who suffered much on account of their faith. On account of persecutions from the Jews, many of them had fled from their home country Palestine, to live among pagans. They felt insecure and threatened as “displaced persons”; hence, they were in danger, like their ancestors in the desert, of grumbling, contesting God, perhaps giving up their faith. Today they are told: “Do not harden your hearts, but keep trusting and listening to God.” Are these not fitting words today to a Church in transition, a Church that is unsettled?

      There is the story of the father whose child had been born badly deformed. He was disheartened and could not love it. But one day he said: “If I can only kiss and touch it, then I can completely accept it.” And that is what he did. Jesus did not only heal the leper but he touched him, showing that he loved and accepted the man completely.

 

Opening Prayer

God, our Father,
you let your Son Jesus Christ,
share the lot of outcasts
and bear the sufferings of all.
Let us become like him,
so that among us no one stays an outcast,
no sin remains unforgivable,
no misery is a cause for rejection.
Make us with your Son,
people who lift up the despised
with words of welcome
and deeds of encouragement.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Heb 3:7-14

The Holy Spirit says:
Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
“Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
in the day of testing in the desert,
where your ancestors tested and tried me
and saw my works for forty years.
Because of this I was provoked with that generation
and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,
and they do not know my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter into my rest.'”
Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

(8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,
they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger:
“They shall never enter my rest.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 

Alleluia: Mt 4:23

Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

 

Intercessions:

–         With all those who seek pardon and reconciliation, we cry out to you, Lord. With all who have found forgiveness, we praise you Lord:

–         With all who wail day and night in their loneliness and misery, we cry out to you Lord. With all those who have found friends to help, we praise you Lord:

–         With all who hide their suffering, we cry to you, Lord. With all who share with others and uplift them, we praise you, Lord:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Merciful Father,
with bread and wine we remember
how you raised us up
above our guilt and fears and our isolation.

Dispose us to share with all
your joy, your acceptance, and affection
on account of him who shared our poverty
and made himself weak and humble with us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Loving, merciful Father,
at the table of your Son, we have learned
to be present to one another
as he has been present among us here
with a love that is discreet and reviving
like a breath of fresh air.
On account of him, who has taken away
the hardness of our hearts,
dispose us to share our riches and our poverty,
to receive one another and from each other
and to touch one another with our love.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

How very happy our community would be if we could fully accept one another just as we are, without condemning, without judging or begrudging, without looking down on anyone, without trying to create one another into our own image and likeness. Let us build up one another with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

A week ago we have reflected on the miracle of Jesus healing the leper by touching him – it was on last Friday, and we read from the Gospel of Luke 5. We reflected on the courage of the leper who breached the social norms to approach Jesus and also the compassion and love of Jesus who also breaks the social restrictions to touch a leper.

Imagine the untold miseries that people have been living through, all over the world, during these pandemic times with a the prohibition to touch. Think of how it affects children, students, couples, parents, friends, the faithful! Not only is the touch prohibited, even physical proximity is viewed with suspicion and fear.

If this is the case in our times which boasts of the best health care facilities, imagine the miseries of a socially outcast leper of Jesus’ times. But Jesus knew how to present this dreaded illness as the best opportunity to teach his followers to care for the sick, the poor and the outcasts.

By reaching out to the leper, Jesus faces the risk of contagion and legal impurity. Yet he breaks the social distancing imposed by the authorities and dares to touch him. That was strictly prohibited. But Jesus does not heal from a distance. Through this sign, more than the healing, Jesus gives us a comforting assurance that he shares our infected nature.

A few years ago, While talking about alms-giving, Pope Francis had once said, “the way of giving alms is as important as the gift. You should not simply drop a bill into a cup and walk away. You must stop, look the person in the eyes, and touch his or her hands.” Wow! Would I dare to make an attempt today? Perhaps, through the gospel today, Jesus invites us to re-live the miracle.

Fr. Paulson Veliyanoor, a Claretian Missionary and Clinical Psychologist, recently published an article on the Sacramentality of Touch during these pandemic times. In the article, Fr. Paulson explains that any loss or failure in life is bearable if someone can hug us or simply place one’s arm around our shoulders. Do not lovers spend hours holding hands, without having to speak anything at all?

He further talks about God and the Eucharist: “Without touch, God is a monologue, an idea, a philosophy; he must touch and be touched, the tongue on flesh.” Indeed, the Eucharist today is God’s skin-to-skin embrace. In the Eucharist, Jesus continues to touch us so personally and comforts us with his message: “I want to make you clean, I want you to be happy.”