Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 30th June 2023

Almost without realising it, we have come to the end of June and, with it, we conclude the first half of 2023 and come to the threshold of the second half. At this rate, it won’t be long before we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve and beginning 2024. Time flies, and at the moment it seems to be flying quicker than ever. This is not a complaint, just an observation.

 

​We have come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount and we find Jesus back down on the plain followed by a large crowd. Matthew writes, (Mt 8: 1-4), “After Jesus had come down from the mountain large crowds followed him. A leper now came up and bowed low in front of him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And his leprosy was cured at once. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Mind you do not tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence for them.’” His first encounter is with a man suffering from leprosy or some similar aliment. In the ancient world to call someone a leper didn’t necessarily mean that the person was actually suffering from leprosy. Think of Naaman the Syrian. It would have been one of several ailments of the flesh. We note that it is the leper who takes the initiative. He comes before Jesus and asks to be healed. He is polite and doesn’t demand healing, rather he is willing to accept the will of Jesus. He also recognises Jesus’ holiness and authority by bowing before him. It’s important to note that Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him. Technically, Jesus himself becomes unclean, and yet his is a healing touch. Jesus’ words are almost an order, “Be cured!” We are not told that the man is healed, but the very fact that Jesus sends him to the priest to make the appropriate offering in thanksgiving for healing, tells us that he is cured.

 

​What does this miracle of healing teach us if not that we should never be afraid to ask Jesus for the gift of healing? No matter how severe our ailment or that of others, Jesus is there for us, and he wants to cure us, he wants to see us whole again.