A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 5:12-16
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and besought him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And he stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one; but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” 15 But so much the more the report went abroad concerning him; and great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.
The first step has to be mine … to live in such a way that others find Christ in me, his love, and are attracted by him. I have to draw near to others in such a way that they realise I do not know them according to the flesh (cf 2Cor 5:16), I am not looking for my own interests, nor help, nor completion, I am not letting myself be guided by sympathy or antipathy, but I welcome them like the Lord himself.
The others ought to experience that I live by Jesus, that I follow his voice and not my own ideas or opinions of others. They will see that my life is based on the Word, on his sacraments, that I listen to him in what he wants to tell me through witnesses and emissaries of the Church. And above all I seek him where he has loved me the most, in difficulties, in the dark times which are for me “the sacrament” of his abandonment on the cross, and his death.
Sooner or later … I will meet others who adhere to this life… and they are people that I have not myself chosen. The circle is widened and new cells of people, meeting together in the name of Jesus, are formed.
Klaus Hemmerle
Der Himmel ist zwischen uns
Neue Stadt, München 19782, pp. 64-65
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
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