Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday - 11th January 2024
Abbot Paul • January 10, 2024
Today, Fr Michael and I rejoice to celebrate the 49th anniversary of our priestly ordination, a day of thanksgiving and happy memories. The good Lord has been infinitely generous to both of us, allowing us to serve him in an amazing variety of ministries, totally unexpected and undreamt of when we were ordained by Bishop Daniel Mullins on this day in 1975, a Holy Year decreed by Pope St Paul VI, of happy memory. In fact, Fr Dyfrig and I were staying at St Paul outside the Walls on the night of 6th August 1978, when Pope Paul passed to his eternal reward. We were in the garden chatting after supper when news came of his death. It was the end of an era. We prayed for the repose of his soul with thanksgiving in our hearts for having experienced this universal pastor’s wisdom and love.
Our Gospel reading today continues from yesterday’s section of Mark, (Mk 1: 40-45). It recounts the healing of a leper, who pleads on his knees, “If you want to, you can cure me.” Jesus is filled with compassion for the man, stretches out his hand and touches him, saying, “Of course, I want to! Be cured!” In Jesus’ day the word leprosy was used for a number of skin conditions and diseases and was usually seen as a punishment for sin. Such people were considered as unclean and so unfit for human society. They were outcasts, untouchables. By touching the leper, Jesus himself becomes unclean. He is already taking upon himself the sufferings and sins of the world. The man is healed and at once the leprosy leaves him, but what happens next is not quite what we’d expect.
“Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.” We hear no reaction from the man himself, no immediate word of thanks, as that’s not what Jesus wants. Jesus always points to the Father and so it’s to the priest that the man must show himself and make the prescribed offering to God as laid down in the Law of Moses. Although Jesus doesn’t want publicity and fame, that’s exactly what he receives as a result of the man telling everyone he meets how he’s been healed by a man named Jesus. Inevitably, crowds search after Jesus and follow him around in the hope of a miracle, always a sign of God’s mercy and love. Today we pray for healing for all those who are sick in any way. May the Lord have compassion on them and make them whole again. Above all, may he give them the gift of faith which will lead them to salvation, the ultimate gift of healing.
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