First reading Genesis 17:1,9-10,15-22
The Lord make a covenant and gives Abram and Sarai new names
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Bear yourself blameless in my presence, and I will make a Covenant between myself and you. You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation. Now this is my Covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you: all your males must be circumcised.’
God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah. I will bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I will bless her and nations shall come out of her; kings of peoples shall descend from her.’ Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’ Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, let Ishmael live in your presence!’ But God replied, ‘No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son whom you are to name Isaac. With him I will establish my Covenant, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. For Ishmael too I grant you your request: I bless him and I will make him fruitful and greatly increased in numbers. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But my Covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.’ When he had finished speaking to Abraham God went up from him.
Responsorial Psalm 127(128):1-5
Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.
O blessed are those who fear the Lord
and walk in his ways!
By the labour of your hands you shall eat.
You will be happy and prosper.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
in the heart of your house;
your children like shoots of the olive,
around your table.
Indeed thus shall be blessed
the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion
all the days of your life!
Gospel Matthew 8:1-4
‘If you want to, you can cure me’
After Jesus had come down from the mountain large crowds followed him. A leper now came up and bowed low in front of him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And his leprosy was cured at once. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Mind you do not tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence for them.’
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If you want to…
In the gospel, a leper came up and bowed low in front of Jesus. “Sir, if you want to, you can cure me”. He, an outcast of society, took the risk to draw close to Jesus because he somehow trusted that Jesus would not reject him but would help him. Jesus was not afraid of the leper but looked at him with love and wanted the best for him. Thus, He stretched out His hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’.
We do not have the physical illness of leprosy today. However, we suffer from the spiritual leprosy of anger, greed, jealousy, pride, etc. that disfigure and separate us from God and others. Do we dare to go close to Jesus and humbly ask Him to heal us? When we allow Him to touch our misery, we can have the courage to go out and touch others in their miseries.
Reflective question:
What is Jesus’ message to me in this time of prayer?
What is Jesus’ message to me in this time of prayer?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year A” by Sr Sandra Seow FMVD.
