SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2/15/09   Gospel:  Mark 1:40-45

“The leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”

In today’s Gospel, the man with a skin rash says to Jesus, “If you want to, you can make me clean.”  The leper is cleansed.

Anyone who has faced a skin disorder knows the misery it inflicts.  It wears us down and drives us crazy. It’s exciting to imagine the instant healing that Jesus allowed in the Gospel story, and even more wonderful to think of the man being restored to his family and community.  What destroys us is being cut off from others.  This miracle of reconnection is continually offered to us by Jesus.  His touch is always there.