14 January 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”” Mark 1:41
Hebrews takes up Psalm 95: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” The generation in the wilderness saw God's works for forty years and still hardened their hearts. The warning is urgent: “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Faith is kept alive day by day, and we are responsible for one another.
In Mark a leper comes to Jesus and kneels: “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Mark notes that Jesus was “moved with pity”, a word for a compassion felt in the depths of the body. He touches the man and heals him. Then a striking reversal: the healed man spreads the news, and Jesus “could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country.” The leper comes back into town, and Jesus takes his place outside. In India today many remember St Devasahayam, a court official who embraced Christ and, rejecting caste barriers, mixed freely with people of every community; arrested for his faith, he was executed in 1752. He too went outside the camp with Jesus.
Theme: “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.”
Today's call, the compassion of Jesus, and the One who goes outside for us.
“Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,” Psalm 95:8
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:13
Apply: Encourage one person in faith today.
“The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean, unclean.”” Leviticus 13:45
“Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”” Mark 1:41
Apply: Visit someone who is lonely or excluded.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” Mark 1:45
Apply: Thank Jesus for taking your place.
Today is the day to hear his voice.
Jesus goes outside so that the outcast may come in.
Take-home resolution: Cross one barrier of caste, class or prejudice this week.
Dear friends, Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 with great urgency: today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:7–8). The people in the wilderness saw God's works for forty years and still turned away. A heart can harden slowly, without noticing.
The remedy is community: exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). We need each other to stay soft toward God.
In the Gospel a leper kneels before Jesus: if you choose, you can make me clean. Mark says Jesus was moved with pity, a compassion felt deep inside. He stretched out his hand and touched him: I do choose. Be made clean! (Mark 1:41).
Then something surprising happens. The healed man tells everyone, and Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country (Mark 1:45). The leper goes back into society; Jesus takes his place outside. That is what Jesus does for us all the way to the Cross.
In India today many honour St Devasahayam, who after his Baptism refused to treat anyone as untouchable and gave his life for Christ. Let us hear the Lord's voice today, keep our hearts soft, and love across every barrier. Amen.
Children, Jesus felt so sorry for the sick man that he touched him and made him well. Let us be kind to anyone who is left out.
Lord Jesus, moved with pity you touched the leper and took his place outside. Today let me hear your voice and not harden my heart. Through the prayers of St Devasahayam, give me courage to love across every barrier. Amen.
“Today” is the word of the first reading. Hebrews takes Psalm 95, today's responsorial psalm, and says that God's call is always spoken now, and that a heart can grow hard by waiting. The Gospel shows a man who does not wait. He kneels, he asks, and he is touched, and in the end Jesus is the one who has to stay out in the country. Compassion takes the outsider's place.
Setting.
The Lectionary passes over 3:1–6, which compare Jesus with Moses. Now the author turns to warning, using a psalm that was part of Israel's own worship. Psalm 95 recalls the desert: at Massah and Meribah the people put God to the test (Exodus 17:1–7), and later they refused to enter the land (Numbers 14). The author is not speaking against the Jewish people. He writes to Christians, and he uses Israel's Scripture as a mirror for them. Hebrews 4 goes on with the theme of rest, as the reading of tomorrow will show.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,” (3:7–8)
The Holy Spirit is named as the speaker: Scripture is a word spoken now, not only one written long ago.
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,”” (3:13)
No one should try to keep faith alone. The remedy against a hardening heart is another Christian who cares, and who speaks up every day.
“For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.” (3:14)
A sermon for the tired. The first enthusiasm may fade, but the confidence it gave can be held on to. The race is not won at the start.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that a word marks the Church's prayer: “Today!”, echoing the call of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews and Psalm 95 (CCC 1165). In the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 95 is the usual invitatory, the first psalm of the Church's day. So each morning priests, religious and many lay people begin with this warning and this invitation.
Setting.
The tour of Galilee (1:39) continues. On the Law regarding skin disease, see Leviticus 13–14: the sick person lived alone, outside the camp, and had to warn others away (13:45–46). To be restored he had to be examined by a priest. The man in this story comes far closer than the rule expected, and Jesus goes further still by touching him. Matthew and Luke tell the story too; Mark's telling is the most vivid of the three.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““If you choose, you can make me clean.”” (1:40)
He does not doubt the power; he only wonders about the will. Years of living apart had taught him not to expect to be wanted.
“Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”” (1:41)
A note on the text. Most manuscripts have “moved with pity” (splanchnistheis), as the NRSV and POC do. A few, chiefly Codex Bezae and some Old Latin witnesses, have “moved with anger” (orgistheis). Some scholars favour this reading, as it is the harder one, and it would fit the strong verb of v. 43: anger at the disease and the isolation, not at the man. Either way, what Jesus does is the same: he touches him.
“so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country;” (1:45)
The story ends with an exchange of places. The man who lived outside the towns now goes back among people, and Jesus is now the one outside. It already points to the Cross, “outside the city gate” (Hebrews 13:12).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that moved by so much suffering, Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but makes their miseries his own (CCC 1505). Many saints have learned this at the feet of those with leprosy. St Francis of Assisi recalls in his Testament that the Lord led him among lepers, and what had seemed bitter became sweet. St Damien de Veuster went to live among the leprosy patients of Molokai in 1873 and died of the disease in 1889.
When Hebrews says “they will not enter my rest”, does it mean that God has rejected the Jewish people?
No. Hebrews is warning its Christian hearers, with the same words Israel used in its own worship. The psalm warned one generation in the desert; it did not pass judgment on a people. The Church teaches that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29; Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 839), and that the Jewish people must not be presented as rejected by God (Nostra Aetate 4).
In India many remember today St Devasahayam, a court official in eighteenth-century Travancore who became a Christian and refused to treat people differently because of their caste. He was put to death on 14 January 1752 and was canonized by Pope Francis on 15 May 2022. Check the diocesan calendar. Like Jesus in today's Gospel, he reached across a barrier and bore the cost. We pray for those who suffer for their faith in many lands, and for those who wrong them.