'He (Jesus) remained outside in deserted places'
... and people kept coming to him from everywhere. (Mk 1:45)
One Minute Gospel Meditation
By MHB-M
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. (Mk 1:45)
Desperation drives the leprous outcast. “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.’” Self-giving love propels the Christ — moved, stretched touched, and spoken.
The leper’s plea doesn’t revolve around Jesus’ abilities. He had seen Jesus, and clearly the Holy One can heal the sick. The core issue of this intimate encounter where a leper kneels to beg, tests the waters of Jesus’ resolve. “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
“If you wish,” raw flesh will be made whole. Pity moved Jesus to reverse the disease through only a touch. An act sealed by divine commitment, “I do will it. Be made clean.”
Immediately. “The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.”
In this instant, the outcast becomes free to enter towns openly. But this is a costly transfer. Jesus now wears the outcast mantle, bound to deserted places.
A new pattern is forged for the one who heals, made an outcast because the freed man has publicized “the whole matter,” spreading the report so broadly that it was “impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.”
The addled arrive laden with dysfunction, addiction and disease, feverish, frantic, and hopeful. Jesus’ resolve grants life in those deserted places.
“I do will it. Be made clean.”