Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
A Compassionate Heart
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. Punishment comes to the Jewish people for their persistent infidelity. Jerusalem was destroyed with its temple, and the people were sent into exile.
Gospel. Immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives us a series of miracles of Jesus, the first of which is narrated in today’s gospel, the cure of the leper. Jesus had spoken with power; now he acts with power. Jesus had spoken of the law of love; now he himself puts it into practice in an act of compassionate help to an outcast. Note that in the Bible, leprosy is closely linked to sin and is like a physical sign of sin. Let us honor our Lord in his compassion and forgiveness.
Opening Prayer
Lord God, our Father,
Your Son, Jesus Christ revealed to us
Your compassionate, healing love.
Let his presence here in our midst
fill us with his power of sharing
in the miseries of our neighbour.
Let our words be like balm
on open wounds in their hearts
and let our deeds bring healing
to all those around us.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
First Reading
Fall of Jerusalem
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it.
The city was under siege up to the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah.
On the ninth day of the fourth month, famine became a severe problem in the city, and throughout the land, there was no bread for the people.
When a breach in the wall opened the city, the Judean army fled through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden while the Chaldeans were still around the city. They fled towards the Arabah.
The Chaldeans followed in hot pursuit of King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted him and scattered.
The Chaldeans seized the king and led him away to Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where the king of Babylon passed a sentence on him.
There at Riblah, the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence. He then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with a double bronze chain, and took him to Babylon.
On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the captain of the royal guard and servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem and
set fire to the house of the Lord and the royal palace, as well as to all the houses in Jerusalem.
The Chaldean army, under the commander of the bodyguard, completely demolished all the walls around Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, carried off into exile the last of the Jews left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the remainder of the artisans.
But he left those among the very poor who could work in vineyards and cultivate the soil.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Though there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the Lord
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Heals a Leper
When Jesus descended from the mountain, a large crowd followed him.
Then a leper stepped forward. He knelt before him and said:
“Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said:
“I will do it. Be made clean.”
At that very moment, the man was healed of his leprosy.
Then Jesus said to him:
“See that you do not tell anyone, but go to the priest, have yourself declared clean, and offer the gift that Moses commanded as evidence for them.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– With all who seek pardon and reconciliation, we cry out to you, Lord, and with all who have found and grant forgiveness, we thank you, Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
– With all who are rejected by their communities, we cry out to you, Lord, and with all who accept people and restore their dignity, we praise you, Lord:
– With all who hide their suffering, we cry out to you, Lord, and with all who share with others and uplift them, we praise you, Lord:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
You are good to us.
With these gifts of bread and wine
We offer you the sacrifice of Jesus
that brought us your forgiveness.
Reconcile us with you and each other
and keep cleansing us from the leprosy
of pride and hard-heartedness
that mark in us the face
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
Your Son Jesus has spoken among us
His words and deeds of healing.
He has answered our plea
for forgiveness and fresh hope in life
with the gift of himself.
Make us too capable
of stretching out our hands
to those in sorrows and pain
and of touching them with our love.
And may our compassionate help
reach out most of all
to the outcasts of this cold world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Blessing
When we have sinned, we too should go to God and tell him: Lord, you can clean me, and he is very willing to do so, for he loves us and heals us repeatedly. May we also bring healing to the people around us, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 8:1-4
Leprosy was a life sentence. And healing a leper was considered as difficult as bringing a dead man back to life - an impossibility: this is why they were marginalised. They could not mix with the people. When Jesus came down from the mountain, a great crowd followed him. However, those with illnesses could not follow him because they were ‘unclean’, and their law forbade them.
This leper took courage and drew near to Jesus because he had faith in him. Jesus made a difficult decision too. Touching a leper was enough to make him unclean in his enemies’ eyes to condemn him. But Jesus didn’t hesitate to draw closer. He stretched out his hand and healed him.
Today also, many people watch Jesus from a distance but are not interested in him; they criticise and condemn him. And many people watch from afar because they don’t have that leper’s courage. But Jesus stretches out his hand to everyone, unafraid of becoming unclean - just like us, soiled by our sins.
A beautiful reflection on this Gospel passage was given by Pope Francis in 2015. He said, “Closeness is such an important word: you can’t build a community without closeness; you can’t make peace without closeness; you can’t do good without drawing near. Jesus could have said to him: “Be healed!” But instead, He drew close and touched him. What’s more, at the moment Jesus touched the unclean man, he became unclean. And this is the mystery of Jesus: He takes upon himself our uncleanliness, our impurities”.
His reflection invited every faithful and the Church as a whole to “get close to marginalised people, close the distance until you touch them without being afraid to get dirty.” St Paul describes this well when he writes, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself”.
Pope Francis emphasises that “now on the altar”, Jesus “will draw near to us: he will close the distance”. Therefore, “let us ask him for this grace: Lord, may I not be afraid to draw close to the needy, to the needy who are visible or to those who have hidden wounds”. This is the grace of drawing near.