Today's Gospel

See Yourself in the Leper

It's a beautiful reading. There's so much here. One of the things that strikes me is the faith of the leper. He comes to Jesus and says, "If you will it, you can make me clean." And Jesus, what do we read about Jesus? He's moved with pity. Now, how often in our lives we're moved with pity? But what does Jesus do? He acts. Sometimes when we're moved with pity-- sometimes when we see a real problem or a real crisis, we're moved with pity. We talk about it, or we think about it, or we wonder about it. But what does Jesus do? He acts. He's moved with pity, and He acts. And He says, "I do will it, and be clean." And so the leper is healed. And Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone." And what does the leper do? He goes tell everybody. He goes and tells everybody. How do you feel about that? When you think about that, when you read that in the gospel and Jesus just completely changed this guy's life, cured him of leprosy, and simple request, "Hey, don't tell anyone about this." And then he goes out and does exactly the opposite. How do you feel about that? What do you think about that? What are your thoughts on the leper? Because whatever your thoughts are on the leper, they're your thoughts on me, and they're your thoughts on yourself because we act like the leper all the time. God has blessed us ultra abundantly, super abundantly. And then He asks us to do simple things, and we go and we do the complete opposite, just like the leper did. And so part of learning to read the Scriptures, learning to experience the Scriptures, allowing the Scriptures to transform our soul, our character, our lives, is learning to see ourselves in each and every single person in the gospels. And today, that means seeing ourselves in the leper. Virtue of the day is obedience. Obedience means to listen deeply. The leper, he listened to Jesus. He didn't listen deeply. And when we don't listen deeply, we're more likely to throw off what we hear. We're more likely to ignore what we hear, even when it is great wisdom, even when it is very clearly the will of God.

Have a great day. God bless you. God bless your family. Be a blessing to everyone you encounter today. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.