'You died out of love and did not abandon us in our misery.' Sunday Reflections, 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Yachounomori Garden,Tatebayashi, Gunma, Japan 
[Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 1:40-45 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Lilac Bush 
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

'The Impressionistic brushstrokes and Japanese style accentuated outline of the iris leaves . . .' (WGA notes).

Two things jumped out at me from the Gospel reading: And a leper came to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean” and people were coming to him from every quarter. Jesus was moved with pity for the leper and, we can be sure, with pity for the crowds who came looking for him. The gospels are full of stories of Jesus healing individuals and of healing many.


This week I read an article by my Columban confrere Fr Joe Brooder who was two classes behind me in the seminary and who has worked in Japan since 1970, apart from some years in Britain in the 1990s when he visited many parishes there on behalf of the Columbans.

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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