Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbot
Just a couple of weeks into the new year and I wonder how many of us are holding to our new year’s resolutions. How many of us are in danger of growing weary these cold, gray days of January, and giving up on the changes we so recently resolved to make.
In today’s first reading (Hebrews 3: 7-14), the author is concerned about the Christians he is writing to growing weary and giving up their journey of faith. This letter cites Psalm 95 (today’s psalm) as a warning not to harden their hearts to God, as did the Israelites who had rebelled again God in the desert. Verse 13 exhorts them (and us) to “encourage yourselves daily while it is still ‘today’.” We need encouragement from one another to carry on our faith journey, a journey that can become difficult and tiring.
Today’s gospel reading (Mark1: 40-45) gives us an example of not giving up, of keeping one’s faith. Here we have a leper who has been cast out of the community as one who is “unclean,” yet he has not given up. Reflecting on his words to Jesus: “If you wish, you can make me clean,” notice that he does not actually ask for a healing. The leper places his healing in Jesus’s hands by simply making this faith-filled statement: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” He puts his trust in Jesus while humbly kneeling before him. Oh, to have such trust!
Well, the rest of the story is that Jesus does “will it” and the leper is “made clean” and healed from his leprosy. The somewhat unexpected part comes after that when Jesus instructs the leper to not tell anyone anything about the healing. The reason being seems to become clear when the leper ignores this instruction and publicizes the whole thing (I can hardly blame him). Apparently the news spread widely and made it “impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.” He remained outside of towns in deserted places, but this did not stop people from finding Jesus; “people kept coming to him from everywhere.”
These readings cause me to reflect on my own faith. What is my current relationship to Jesus like? Do I seek Jesus outside of the places where I am most comfortable? Do I go out to “deserted places” to seek time with the Lord? Am I as trusting as the leper? Am I willing to kneel before the Lord simply saying, “If you wish, it can be done”? Or has my heart become hardened when life’s difficulties have come my way?
Today, I pray that I can open my heart to God once again, and humbly kneel before Jesus, placing my needs, my worries, my concerns in His hands. And let us encourage one another to do the same.
-Eileen Miller