REFLECTIONS ON THE HEALING OF A LEPER (Mk 1: 40-45) VII
Last week we spoke about the attitudes necessary for profitable prayer and we reflected especially on the necessity of inner calm and silence. We contemplated Jesus Christ in his night prayer as St. Mark illustrates it in his Gospel immediately before his encounter with the leper. A God who is silent and who speaks in silence can only be heard and understood by those who withdraw from noise and consciously choose the path of stillness.
The Lord's prayer that day ends when his apostles, who had gone out to look for him, find him, as is his custom, alone in prayer. (v. 37) Speaking for them all, St. Peter says to Jesus: "Everyone is looking for you." (v. 37)
In the immediate sense, Simon was referring to the residents of Capernaum and all who came looking for him to hear him speak and to heal them. In a deeper sense, the words of the son of Jonah point to the deepest desire that harbors in the human heart. Actually, "everyone" seeks Jesus because only He is the fulfillment of all the aspirations of man. Surely, many of you will remember the words of St. John Paul II to the youth at World Youth Day at the turn of this century.
“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted (…) Dear young people of the century now beginning, in saying "yes" to Christ, you say "yes" to all your noblest ideals”. (XV World Youth Day, August 19, 2000).
Personally, I see this yearning for Christ in the phenomenon that we are experiencing now all over the world: so many Catholics who are asking for the Eucharist. People shed tears of sorrow and pain for not being able to receive Holy Communion. People come to the church, even knowing that they cannot enter, and remain outside during the celebration of Holy Mass because in some way, they feel closer to the Lord in the Sacrament of the altar. Thousands and thousands of people all over the world are connecting to the Eucharistic celebration through broadcasts of the Holy Mass while confined to their homes by the civil authorities.
In all these manifestations of love for the Eucharist, and in the disappointment of those who ask to be fed with the living Bread come down from heaven, do we not perceive an echo of the words of St. Peter in the Gospel of St. Mark: “Everyone is looking for you"?
In the next verse, Jesus responds to his disciples: “He told them, ‘Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.’" (v. 38) Tomorrow, God willing, we will speak about this verse of Scripture.
Today we can end here with the words of St Peter. We can ask God to always give us the grace to seek him, especially in these days when so many of the faithful have been prevented from receiving Holy Communion. May this "absence" and this imposed fast serve to increase in them, and in all of us, the desire to satisfy the hunger of our hearts only in Him and to receive Him again very soon, with more devotion, with more respect and love, and with more benefit for our souls.
God bless you