The One Who Believes

January 11, 2008

Friday After Epiphany

Who (indeed) is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:5

Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately. Luke 5:12-13

Piety

“I Take My Stand on His Word”

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord

Lord hear my voice

Be attentive to my cry.

If you remember our sin

Who could bear it?

No, your glory is your forgiveness.

My soul hopes in the Lord:

I take my stand on his word.

More than the sleepless awaiting the dawn

My soul awaits him.

As a vigiler awaits the dawn

Let his friends await the Lord.

For with him is grace abundance!

Out of the depths

I take my stand on his word.

-- Daniel Berrigan, SJ

(From Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, edited by Michael Harter, SJ. Chicago: Jesuit Way, an imprint of Loyola Press, 2005)

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/011108.shtml

Today, Jesus meets up with a man imprisoned by horrible skin disease. The man was outcast by the community because of his disease – banished so he would not infect anyone else. How alone must he feel? Not even his parents and family can be with him.

Through his faith, he turns to Jesus to be set free of this horrible disease. Out of the depths of his despair, he turns to Jesus. John reminds us in today’s first reading that whoever believes in Christ will be victor over the world. So, before Jesus can set the leper free, we see the leper pour out his faith in a public pronouncement. That is all Jesus needs. Whoever believes.

The leper did not see Jesus perform and signs or miracles. Maybe he had heard about Jesus around town. He certainly did not have the benefits of our education – of the Gospels, a life of religious teaching and preaching, the experiences of the sacraments, Cursillo group support and the love of a community. The only action that the leper needed to take was to see Jesus and then to believe. Like the shepherds. Like the magi. The encounter was enough for his Epiphany. He just sees and believes.

And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours. John 5:11-15

Jesus hears the leper’s confidence in him. The leper asks and Jesus answers.

How smart do we think we are? With our diplomas and degrees, we probably learn more in a few hours than people in the ancient world would learn in a lifetime.

How many of us can express the confidence of the leper in our faith? He will hear us, too.

Action

Who is today’s leper? Maybe he is one of the hundreds of thousands of children in Latin America who statistics tell us will die this year from easily preventable diseases. Jesus is not here to cure them. However, there are many worthy organizations assisting who can use our palanca. One group is the Catholic Medical Mission Board. CMMB’s Accion por la Salud Familiar (Action for Family Health) reduces child mortality by providing medical care and resources to healthcare facilities, and by training local volunteers to spot and treat the first signs of serious illness. Click here to read more about the CMMB program.

As a charity, more than 95 percent of the funds it collects are used for program expenses. Considering supporting CMMB. It is one way we can reach out to the leper – to the one who believes.