according to Saint Mark 1:40-45.
How to be or become followers of Jesus Christ in OUR own personal situationWe read that Jesus feels compassion and heals the leper. It was an outcast of the society, one who the fanatical mindset of the Jews of that time was sick for divine punishment, because a sinner; and no one wanted to even see him..
To follow Christ I have to learn not to despise anyone, and although using the due prudence, I should take a positive attitude toward all those with whom I am or come to contact.
No one should judge maliciously others, or despise them because if by chance aren't endowed with our material or intellectual means, or are poor, sick or ignorant.
Let me try then to look events and people in the most objective as possible, to do my best to help others. Our closer neighbours are those of our family, whom we should place a particular attention and warning to care.
However I do not forget to ask Jesus' help and think well what I have to do before doing it.. First pray then, in second place, act.. I remember and we should always remember that we are sinners and that we need ALWAYS to be made clean by Him,. just like the leper.
Lino Bertuzzi
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Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1:40-45.
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
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Commentary of the day Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
Life of St Francis, Legenda Major 1,5-6 (trans. ©2000 Franciscan Institute of St Bonaventure) “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him” One day while he was riding his horse through the plain that lies below the city of Assisi, he met a leper. This unforeseen encounter struck him with not a little horror. Recalling the plan of perfection he had already conceived in his mind, and remembering that he must first conquer himself if he wanted to become a knight of Christ, he dismounted from his horse and ran to kiss him. As the leper stretched out his hand as if to receive something, he gave him money with a kiss. Immediately mounting his horse, however, and turning all around, even though the open plain stretched clear in all directions, he could not see the leper anywhere. He began, therefore, filled with wonder and joy, to sing praises to the Lord, while proposing, because of this, to embark always on the greater… From then on he clothed himself with a spirit of poverty, a sense of humility, and an eagerness for intimate piety. For previously not only had association with lepers horrified him greatly, so too did even gazing upon them from a distance. But, now because of Christ crucified, who according to the text of the prophet appeared “despised as a leper” (Is 53:3), he, in order to despise himself completely, showed deeds of humility and humanity to lepers with a gentle piety. He visited their houses frequently, generously distributed alms to them, and with a great drive of compassion kissed their hands and their mouths. To poor beggars he even wished to give not only his possessions but his very self, sometimes taking off his clothes, at others altering them, at yet others, when he had nothing else at hand, ripping them in pieces to give to them. With religious devotion he visited at this time the shrine of the Apostle Peter. When he saw a large number of the poor before the entrance of the church, led partly by the gentleness of his piety, encouraged partly by the love of poverty, he gave his own clothes to the of the neediest among them. Dressed in his rags, he spent that day in the midst of the poor with an unaccustomed joy of spirit.
