June 26
Jesus Is Willing.
He Is Always Willing.
Our Lady of Meliapore, East Indies (1542)
Gospel: Matthew 8:1-4
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| Image created using Google AI Image Creator. |
Someone is reading this right now who feels untouchable. Not from leprosy,
but from shame, from failure, from a sin carried so long it has started to feel
permanent. You have told yourself the story so many times that you half believe
it: I am too far gone. I am not worth the effort. Nobody reaches for someone
like me. When you read the Gospel of Matthew this morning, a leper walks straight toward Jesus and says
five very powerful words in his request: Lord, if you are willing. He
simply comes as he is and leaves the rest to the Lord. And Jesus does something
they weren’t expecting. He reaches out and touches him, and He says, I am
willing. Be clean.
That touch is the
whole gospel in one gesture. Under the law, touching a leper made you unclean.
Jesus touches the leper, and he is healed. That is not just a miracle of the
body. That is the pattern of everything Jesus does. He does not stand at a safe
distance and pronounce you forgiven. He reaches into the exact place of your
brokenness and heals you. The question He is asking you today is not whether
you are worthy of that touch. You are not, and neither was the leper. The
question is whether you are no longer going to stay away and simply come to Him
the way that man did. On your knees, with no agenda, and an open heart to
receive the Lord.
Today, we look at
Our Lady of Meliapore in the East Indies, a shrine where the Apostle Thomas was
martyred for the faith in 72 AD, and then centuries later, Saint Francis Xavier
would go there to pray during his eleven years of mission in India. That’s
pretty amazing, one of the greatest missionaries in history, a man who baptized
tens of thousands and crossed oceans for the gospel, and then came to this
shrine regularly to kneel before Our Lady and draw strength. Francis Xavier did
not work from his own power; instead, he turned to our Lady. He came broken and
depleted at her feet and left restored. That is exactly what the leper did
before Jesus. And that is exactly what you are invited to do today.
So, bring whatever pain or suffering that you are carrying. Bring the part of yourself you have decided is beyond repair. Come the way the leper did, not with a speech or a plan, just with the simple truth in the place you are today. Because the same Jesus who stretched out His hand on that hillside outside Jerusalem is stretching it out toward you right now. He was willing then, and He is willing now. He will always be willing to heal you. Our Lady of Meliapore, pray for us.
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
