Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Before He Was Healed, He Was Touched

We’ve just heard one of the most striking encounters in the Gospel.

A man with leprosy comes straight up to Jesus. That alone should catch our attention. He’s not supposed to do that. He’s supposed to keep his distance. He’s supposed to stay on the margins.

But instead, he kneels before Jesus and says just one sentence:
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

Not “You owe me.”
Not “Why haven’t you helped me yet?”
Just trust. Just honesty.
If you wish.

And then Mark tells us something very important: Jesus is moved with compassion—and He reaches out and touches him.

That’s the moment.

Jesus didn’t need to touch him to heal him. A word would have been enough. But He chooses to touch the one no one touches. The one people avoid. The one who’s been isolated for who knows how long.

St. John Chrysostom once pointed out that Jesus did not heal him from a distance, but by touching him, to show that He is not made unclean by our brokenness—He is the one who cleanses it.

Before the man is healed, he is welcomed.
Before he is restored, he is loved.

That’s how the Lord works.

So often we come to God wanting things fixed, wanting things changed. And that matters. But before anything else, God comes close. He doesn’t heal from a distance. He enters into our mess, our pain, our broken places.

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

And immediately, the Gospel says, the leprosy leaves him.

Then comes the part that surprises us. Jesus tells him to go to the priest—and to say nothing to anyone.

But the man can’t do it. He goes out and tells everyone.

And honestly, who could blame him?

“Once you’ve been touched like that, it’s hard to keep quiet.”

But notice what happens next. Because of this, Jesus can no longer enter towns openly. He stays on the outskirts.

Do you see what’s happened?

The man who lived on the margins is brought back in.
Jesus takes his place.

That’s the Gospel in one scene.

And it leaves us with a simple question today—not a complicated one.

Can we come to the Lord the way that man did?

Not pretending.
Not demanding.
Just honest.

“If you wish…”

And maybe even more importantly—are we willing to let Him come close? To touch the places we usually keep hidden?

Because that’s where healing begins.

And when we’ve been met by that kind of mercy, our lives start to speak—even when we don’t say a word.