Monday, March 2nd

Jesus could have healed the leper from afar, yet He chooses to come close and touch the man and then commands him to show himself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses prescribed. This is similar to what we’re called to do in recovery. We are invited to seek and show ourselves to God, self, and another human being in Step Four and Step Five, becoming transparent, vulnerable, and receptive to God’s healing grace and power. And in response to this healing, we are called to then offer our lives and hearts to God and others by living sober, clean, and free.

The leper gives us an example of how to reverently approach Jesus in humility, honesty, and dependence. And he also gives us an example of how we should encounter the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, whispering quietly each time, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2).

Reflection Questions

• How have you approached Jesus for help and in what specific ways have you experienced the healing touch of Jesus from active addiction, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments?
• In what specific ways do you respond to God in gratitude for the gift of life, healing, and recovery? Can you respond to Jesus in the Eucharist with gratitude today?

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: 2 Kings 25:1-12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Gospel: Matthew 8:1-4

Reflection by Marybeth B.

(1902-1975) — Saint Josemaría was a Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei in 1928, a Catholic institution of laypeople and priests that focuses on the universal call to holiness and sanctification of ordinary daily work. He experienced hardships and poverty in family life and religious persecution during the Spanish Civil War. Saint Josemaría Escrivá dedicated his life to the building of God’s Kingdom through the apostolate of Opus Dei.

Pope Saint John Paul II summed up Saint Josemaría’s message at the canonization Mass on October 6, 2002: “Work and any other activity, carried out with the help of grace, is converted into a means of daily sanctification.” Take some time to reflect on how addiction and recovery have each affected your work. How have they affected your sanctification?

“Abandonment to the will of God is the secret of happiness on earth. Say, then: meus cibus est, ut faciam voluntatem ejus, my food is to do his will” (Saint Josemaria Escriva, The Way).