A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. (Mk 1:40-42)
In today’s Gospel, there was a leper who heard about Jesus’ miracles. The leper knew that he was ostracized. He knew that he should not approach anyone. He knew that he was under a death sentence with his disease. But, he also knew that Jesus healed a lot of other people and he believed Jesus could help him, too.
All he had to do was ask.
We all have the propensity to get ourselves into a lot of trouble. We all engage in sinful thoughts and deeds at one time or another in our lives. We all can feel awful about ourselves. We may even feel “unclean”, as if there were nothing that could be done to help us or to save us.
Jesus does not want us to feel that way. He does not want us to be that way. He goes out of His way to help us, to heal us, to make us whole.
All we have to do is ask.
Therein lies the rub.
How many of us have the nerve to ask?
We often think that we are beyond help, that our souls are so ugly that God would turn His face from us if we approached Him.
The simple truth is that God is waiting for us to come to Him. God will give us what we need.
All we have to do is ask.
FAITH ACTION: In quiet prayer this day, ask the Lord for whatever it is you need. He wants to help. He is waiting for you to come to Him. All you have to do is ask.