Friday, February 13, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 1:40-45

A man suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, 'If you are willing, you can cleanse me.' Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' And at once the skin-disease left him and he was cleansed. And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him, 'Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them.' The man went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him.

Reflection

Bring healing, O Lord, to broken places and wounded faces. Reveal your hearts desire and satisfy ours.

There is not much more I can say today. The world of tragedies, death and threat surrounds and fills my consciousness. Health evaporates like mist. Sunny security disappears behind impenetrable clouds. Accidents smash the joyous beauty of youth.

And dumbstruck souls struggle to catch their breath. Or they vainly fill the far corners of the room with airy blather, denying mortality and running from the inescapable needs they wish not to acknowledge, needs that would land them in your lap.

And I sit in the quiet, wanting only the nearness of you who say you are willing, willing to touch and heal.

So touch and heal, dearest Friend. You know all those for whom I pray with weak words and fearful heart.

But there is no reason for fear. That which we fear can and will happen. Sooner or later, it always does.

But you happen, too. And you are willing to touch and heal every hurt, awakening that hope that does not die.

Pr. David L. Miller