Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (1: 40-45) in which see Jesus moved with compassion for the leper who comes to him to be cured.

In today’s Gospel, Fr Paul says, we see the care and concern of Jesus.  The leper has no right to even approach Jesus, but he must have felt Jesus would be open to his approach, open to his request to be healed.  In our English translation of this Gospel, we hear that Jesus feels sorry for him, but this is far too soft.  If we literally translated from the Greek, Jesus was gutted – he felt to the very depths of his being for this man.

We then see Jesus, despite becoming ritually unclean and despite the risk of infection, touching the leper and curing him.

For our reflection today, Fr Paul says we might ask ourselves, ‘Who in my life needs my care and concern at the moment?’ and ‘What can I do to show that care and concern?’