Thurs., Jan. 14: 1 Sam 4:1-11; Mark 1:40-45

‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’ Jesus replied, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’ Jesus was “moved with pity” by the leper’s plea not only for physical healing, but for the freedom to re­join his fellow Israelites and to be shunned no longer. Jesus wants to heal us from whatever keeps us from full com­munion with the church. Notice that Jesus commanded the leper, as the final step of his healing, to do what the Law of Moses required. If we are separated from our fellow wor­shipers by an attitude, a sin or an estrangement from the community — even from one of its members.

*let us seek the resolution of this impediment to unity through coun­seling, repentance, confession and reconciliation. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.