Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
12TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 4 / (Red)
St. Irenaeus, bishop, martyr & doctor
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 137: 1-2, 3, 4-5, 6: Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
1st Reading: 2 Kings 25: 1-12
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem.
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 serious problem in the city, and throughout the land there was no bread for the people.
When the city was opened by a breach in the wall, the Judean army fled through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were still around the city; and 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 and there the king of Babylon passed 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 Yahweh 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 were capable of working in vineyards and cultivating the soil.
Gospel: Matthew 8: 1-4
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
Then a leper came 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 want to, be clean again.”
At that very moment the man was cleansed from 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.”
REFLECTION:
“Be clean again.”
In the Gospel passage for today, Jesus’ teaching on loving kindness is concretized by healing a person with leprosy.
The leper presented himself to Jesus with a conditional statement if Jesus would be willing to cure him of his leprosy.
We know that Jesus always wills doing good for the well-being of others.
Nonetheless, Jesus exercised his goodwill without condition. With the Greek verb thel?, “I will,” Jesus was able to verbally express his will of curing the leper.
But before Jesus had said a word, he already stretched out his hand to reach out to the leper.
Hence, Jesus’ goodwill was demonstrated through a concrete gesture of reaching out, which was backed up by Jesus’ kind words.
Moreover, merely with Jesus’ gesture of reaching out and through his kind words, Jesus had already brought good upon the leper.
Kind words coupled with loving gestures of concern do heal people.
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