Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Right Praise

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 01.12..23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
Mark 1:40–45

Friends, our Gospel today gives us one of the great scenes of Jesus healing a leper.
And as is usually the case,
it becomes an icon of the spiritual life in general.

Once in the Lord’s presence, the leper kneels down and begs him.
The suffering man realizes who Jesus is: not one prophet among many
but the incarnation of the God of Israel,
the only one before whom worship is the appropriate attitude.

In our sickness, our weakness, our shame, our sin, our oddness—lots of us feel like this leper.
We feel as though we’re just not worthy.
Whatever trouble we are in, we have to come to Jesus in the attitude of worship.
He is the Lord and we’re not.
This is the key step in getting our lives in order: right praise.

Consider the leper’s beautiful plea, essential in any act of petitionary prayer:
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
He is not demanding; he is acknowledging the lordship of Jesus, his sovereignty.
"Thy will be done"
is always the right attitude in any prayer.

[MurphsLaw]

+++ 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.+++