＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

2 Kings 25:1-12

In the ninth year of Zede­kiah’s reign,

On the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was under siege up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month famine became a serious problem in the city, and throughout the land there was no bread for the peo­ple.

 When the city was opened by a breach in the wall, the Judean army fled through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden while the Chaldeans were still around the city and they fled towards the Arabah. The Chaldeans followed in  hot pursuit of King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted and scattered. 

The Chaldeans seized the king and led him away to Riblah in the territory of Hamath and there the king of Babylon passed sentence on him. There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence. He then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with a double bronze chain and took him to Babylon.

On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Nebu­chad­nezzar king of Babylon, Nebu­­z­aradan, commander of the bodyguard and servant of the king of Babylon, en­tered Jerusalem and set fire to the House of Yahweh and the royal palace as well as to all the houses in Jeru­salem. The Chal­dean army under the commander of the bodyguard completely demolished all the walls around Jerusalem.

 Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, carried off into exile the last of the Jews left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the remainder of the artisans. But he left those among the very poor who were capable of working in vineyards and cultivating the soil.

 

Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 8:1-4

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Then a leper came forward. He knelt before him and said, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to, be clean again.”

At that very moment the man was cleansed from his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you do not tell anyone, but go to the priest, have yourself declared clean, and of­fer the gift that Moses ordered as proof of it.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

What a profound and trusting faith this leper had! He come to Jesus, but even before asking that Jesus heal him, he makes the most profound profession of faith, sayig that if it were Jesus’ will, he knew he could be made clean.

What’s amazing about this particular Gospel passage is how swiftly Jesus acted. There was nothing in between the leper’s words and Jesus’ action. He simply stretched out his hand and touched the man and healed him. Faith, we are told, can move mountains.

But that is, if that faith is genuine. The faith and confidence in Jesus that the leper showed is such kind of faith, and it healed him, instantly. If we too; believed with the same intensity. Imagine what the Lord could accomplish in and through us!

Pray for the grace to put your life completely in the Lord’s hands, ask for the gift of a faith that fully surrenders every single area of your life, your work, your family, your relationships, to the will of the Father.