Listening Obedience

January 16, 2024 // Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

Reflect on the Word// “Really? I can choose not to tell anyone else that I did this?” My spiritual director, a priest, knew me well and had discerned that my talking more about what I had just confessed would be self-sabotage, a way of not owning my rightful place as a beloved daughter of God. I’d just received the healing words of absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and was filled with joy at God’s forgiveness. I found ways to share my healing without returning to a place of shame and self-condemnation.

We might find it strange that Jesus admonishes the newly healed leper sternly and sends him on his way with the warning not to tell, but to go and show himself to the priest (see Mark 1:41). Jesus knew how the leper’s telling might distract him from going to the priest and being rightly restored to his community through the offerings prescribed by Jewish law.  If he was not rightly restored, he would not be allowed to return to the synagogue to worship God. The Scriptures do not say whether the cleansed leper obeyed the second part of Jesus’ admonition, but they do tell us that because the leper told everyone,  Jesus was forced to move to the outskirts instead of traveling freely in the town as He had planned (see Mark 1:45). Did some people miss out on a healing they would have received if the leper had listened and kept quiet? 

Sister, God desires for us to listen to His voice. Like the leper, we may never know the full consequences of our choices, but anything short of listening obedience puts us at risk for hardness of heart and missing out on the solace to be found only in Him. The more we listen and are quick to obey what we hear Him ask of us, the more we will find the rest in Him for which our hearts ache.

Relate to the Lord // What is Jesus asking of you today? How will you obey?