“On this earth everyone has his cross. But we must act in such a way that we be not the bad, but good thief.”

The Lord sometimes makes you feel the weight of the cross. Although the weight seems intolerable, you are able to carry it, because the Lord, in His love and mercy extends a hand to you and gives you strength. - St. Padre Pio

Gospel Text: (MK 1:40-45)

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.

Can you imagine one of your children coming to you with a problem that you could easily solve, but instead of helping, you tell him or her to “deal with it”? That’s not the response of a loving parent. Our children come to us because they trust us and are confident that we can help them out. If we are so willing to respond to them, we can only imagine how much God wants to respond to us—especially when we consider how much bigger his heart is than ours!

The leper in today’s Gospel believed this was true. He knew that no one in his village could help him. Even his friends and family had rejected him because they were frightened and repelled by his disease. Yet this man approached Jesus with complete trust and deep faith. “If you wish,” he declared, “you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40).

How could Jesus refuse?