PRIEST: Today’s Gospel tells us of Jesus curing a leper: but it is not just another healing. He breaks the sacred Law because of his compassion. And in restoring this outcast to his family and community, Jesus then becomes the outcast. Compassion costs, and healing does not often come cheap, even if it is a free gift! Who are the lepers and outcasts of todays’s world – and where is our compassion? Whom do we cast out of our hearts? Perhaps the outcast can heal our hardness…
READER: We cry out to God for mercy
because of all the outcasts our heart makes,
for every refusal to be compassionate
LORD HAVE MERCY…
We cry out to Jesus for forgiveness in the name of a society
that discriminates and divides,
that gives birth to racial violence
and hatred towards those who do not conform
CHRIST HAVE MERCY…
We cry out to the Holy Spirit for the healing
of our hardened and cynical hearts
that so often will not accept those who are different from ourselves
LORD HAVE MERCY…
PRIEST: May the God of all love melt our hearts with his compassion;
may Jesus touch our sin with reconciling mercy;
may the Holy Spirit cleanse and heal us that
we might have a new heart for all humanity
and bring us and all outcasts to everlasting life
AMEN!