8 January 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.” Luke 5:13
A man “covered with leprosy” sees Jesus, falls on his face and begs: “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He has no doubt about Jesus' power; he only asks about his will. And Jesus answers with a touch before a word. To touch a leper was forbidden and made a person unclean. But here holiness is contagious, not uncleanness: “I do choose. Be made clean.” Then Jesus sends him to the priest, so that he may be restored to the community.
Luke adds that the news spread and crowds came, “But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” Power and prayer go together in Jesus. St John speaks of three witnesses, “the Spirit and the water and the blood”, and of the testimony of God: “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life.” The Fathers saw in the water and blood the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, by which Christ still touches and heals us.
Theme: “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.”
The touch of Jesus heals and restores; whoever has the Son has life.
“So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.” 2 Kings 5:14
“Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.”” Luke 5:12
Apply: Pray today: Lord, if you choose, heal me.
“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4
“Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.” Luke 5:13
Apply: Visit a sick person whom few people visit.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Ezekiel 36:25
“And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11–12
Apply: Go to confession and receive the Eucharist with new faith.
Jesus still says: I do choose.
His touch reaches us in the sacraments.
Take-home resolution: Make a good confession before the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday.
Dear friends, in one of the towns a man covered with leprosy sees Jesus, falls on his face and begs: Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean (Luke 5:12). He does not doubt Jesus' power. He only asks whether Jesus wants to.
Jesus answers first with his hand. He stretches it out and touches him. By the Law, touching a leper made a person unclean. But with Jesus the opposite happens: his holiness flows into the sick man. I do choose. Be made clean (Luke 5:13). Immediately the leprosy leaves him.
Then Jesus sends him to the priest. Healing is not only for the body; the man must be restored to his family and his community. God's mercy always brings us back to belonging.
Luke adds that crowds came to hear and be healed, but Jesus would withdraw to deserted places and pray (Luke 5:16). St John tells us that God has given us eternal life in his Son; whoever has the Son has life (1 John 5:11–12). In Baptism and the Eucharist, the water and the blood, Jesus still touches us.
What is the leprosy you are ashamed to bring to Jesus? Bring it to him in confession. He still says: I do choose. Be made clean. Amen.
Children, nobody wanted to touch the sick man, but Jesus did! Let us be kind to children whom others leave alone.
Lord Jesus, if you choose, you can make me clean. Stretch out your hand and touch what is broken in me. Let me never be ashamed to come to you, and let me bring your healing touch to others. Amen.
The Christmas season is about to close, and both readings ask who this child really is and what he brings. The First Letter of John answers in the language of a court: God himself has testified to his Son, and the verdict is life. In Luke a man covered with leprosy learns the same thing through a hand laid on his skin. The psalm praises the God who “sends out his command to the earth”; in Jesus that word comes close enough to touch.
Setting.
The letter was written for a community that had been through a painful split: some had gone out from it (2:19) and, it seems, denied that Jesus Christ had truly come in the flesh (4:2–3). This passage follows straight on from the reading of 7 January, which ended with the victory of faith, and it draws the letter's argument towards its goal. Many scholars think that its stress on “the water and the blood” answers teachers like Cerinthus, who, as St Irenaeus reports, held that the divine Christ came upon Jesus at his baptism and left him before the Passion.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.” (5:6)
The repeated “not with the water only” shows the point in dispute. The Passion is no accident that happened to someone else. The Son of God himself went through it.
“There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.” (5:7–8)
A note on the text. Older printed Bibles add here a sentence about three witnesses in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. It is called the “Johannine comma”. It is missing from the early Greek manuscripts and is a later addition known from the Latin tradition, so modern Catholic Bibles, including the NRSV and the POC, do not have it. Faith in the Trinity does not depend on it.
“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (5:12)
The whole letter in one line. Life is not a reward kept apart from Christ. To have him is to have it.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the blood and water from the side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the sacraments of new life (CCC 1225). So the testimony of 1 John 5 goes on in the Church: at the font and at the altar the Spirit still bears witness to the Son. Verse 13 is close to the purpose given at the end of John's Gospel: “that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
Setting.
This comes early in the ministry in Galilee, just after the call of Simon Peter at the lake (5:1–11). According to Leviticus 13–14, a person with a skin disease of this kind had to be examined by a priest and “shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:46). The rule was there to protect the holiness and health of the community, but for the sick man it meant being cut off from home, worship and touch. Luke does not say that he came to the town illegally. He only says that he saw Jesus and fell on his face.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.”” (5:12)
This is one of the most trusting prayers in the Gospels. It makes no demand, and it leaves everything with the Lord.
“Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.”” (5:13)
Under the Law, touching such a man made a person unclean. Here it goes the other way: the touch does not make Jesus unclean, it makes the man clean. A word would have been enough, but this man had long gone without a human touch.
“But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” (5:16)
At the moment of his greatest success Jesus goes away to be with the Father. The crowds do not set the rhythm of his life.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Christ makes use of signs to heal, including the laying on of hands, and that he not only allows himself to be touched by the sick but makes their miseries his own (CCC 1504–1505). It also notes that Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude (CCC 2602). The sending to the priest shows respect for the Law: Jesus does not bypass Israel's way of restoring a person to the community, but sends the man back into it.
Why does my old Bible have more words in 1 John 5:7?
Some older translations, made from later Latin and Greek texts, include “the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit” in the verse. The words are not in the early Greek manuscripts, and modern Catholic Bibles leave them out. The Church's faith in the Trinity rests on the whole of Scripture and Tradition, not on this one line.