Scripture:  Matthew 8:1-4  

1 Jesus came down from the mountain. Many people followed Him. 2 A man with a bad skin disease came and got down before Him and worshiped Him. He said, "Lord, if You will, You can heal me!" 3 Then Jesus put His hand on him and said, "I will. You are healed!" At once the man was healed. 4 Jesus said to him, "Go now, but tell no one. Let the religious leader see you. Give the gift in worship that Moses told you to give. This will show them you have been healed." (Leviticus 13:49)

Meditation: The leper approached Jesus confidently and humbly, expecting that Jesus could and would heal him. Normally a leper would be stoned or at least warded off if he tried to come near a rabbi. Jesus not only grants the man his request, but he demonstrates the personal love, compassion, and tenderness of God in his physical touch. The medical knowledge of his day would have regarded such contact as grave risk for incurring infection. Jesus met the man’s misery with compassion and tender kindness. He communicated the love and mercy of God in a sign that spoke more eloquently than words. He touched the man and made him clean – not only physically but spiritually as well.

Some eleven centuries later, a man, named Francis, met a leper on the road as he journeyed towards Assisi. “Though the leper caused him no small disgust and horror, he nonetheless, got off the horse and prepared to kiss the leper. But when the leper put out his hand as though to receive something, he received money along with a kiss” (from the Life of St. Francis by Thomas of Celano). Francis did what seemed humanly impossible because he was filled with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit inflames our hearts with the fire of Christ's love that we may reach out to others with compassionate care, especially to those who have been rejected, mistreated, and left utterly alone. Do you allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with the love and compassion of Christ for others?

Prayer: “May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love."  (Prayer of Francis of Assisi, 13th century)

Psalm137:1-6

1 We sat down and cried by the rivers of Babylon when we remembered Zion.
 2 There upon the trees we put our harps.
 3 For those who held us there made us sing. And those who made it hard for us asked for joy. They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

 4 How can we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?
 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget what it is able to do.
 6 May my tongue hold to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not honor Jerusalem above my highest joy.