Feeling sorry for him,
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, “I am willing. Be
cleansed.”
Jesus feels sorry for the man who
approaches him asking to be healed. This is not all though. Jesus also acts to
change the man’s situation – he reaches out and heals him.
Ngoun Phalla
lives in Cambodia and dedicates her time to caring for children who have nowhere
else to go. She has had to overcome huge challenges herself – her family were
killed by soldiers and she was imprisoned, tortured and spent over a decade in a
refugee camp. But with the help of CAFOD’s partner Maryknoll, Phalla now fosters
eight children who have lost their parents to AIDS. “Help starts from love. It’s
as simple as that,” she says.
It is easy to feel sorry for others. We
cannot help but feel compassion for those who are sick or who do not have a safe
place to live. We are moved when we hear about people who are struggling to feed
their families or find clean water to drink. But this sense of compassion, by
itself, is not enough. We are called to act, to try to make a difference to the
lives of others – both those we meet and those we will never meet, but whose
stories touch us from around the world.
God of mercy,
inspire us all to follow Jesus’s
example of loving care and compassion. Move us to act to change the lives of our
brothers and sisters around the world
Amen.
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