Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 8, 2021
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was;
and when he saw Jesus,
he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
And the leprosy left him immediately.
Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but
“Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing
what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
The report about him spread all the more,
and great crowds assembled to listen to him
and to be cured of their ailments,
but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
God’s will and our will, they must work together. The leper in today’s gospel prostrates himself before Jesus, pleads with him, and says, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” The man takes the initiative to place himself before the Lord but realizes that, in the end, it is God’s grace that heals.
This reading reminds me of a line attributed to St. Augustine that I learned back in high school: “God provides the wind, man must raise the sail.” The leper has raised the sail. Of course, Jesus’ response is, “I do will it.” And the leper is healed.
There have been so many times in my life when I have hoped for God to fix things and waited for things to change without really doing anything myself. I didn’t raise the sail. God’s grace was like the wind all around me but I wasn’t letting it move me. Like the leper in today’s reading, I can say to God, “Lord, if you will it, you can draw me away from my sins and faults.” Just by making that prayer, I can already feel the wind of the Holy Spirit moving me in the right direction.
The leper in today’s gospel shows us how to raise the sail. God is waiting to fill our sails with the power of his grace.
Prayer
Help us, Lord, to foster the brilliant light of our faith and trust in you. Forgive us our indifference at times and help us to serve you in our faith and trust. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Our Lady of Prompt Succor is a title under which Mary is honored uniquely by the people of New Orleans. When Louisiana was still French territory, Ursuline nuns arrived to educate the children of the territory—the children of the French colonists, the Native Americans, and the local Creole people. Louisiana changed hands between the French and the Spanish governments, but, in 1800, Louisiana came back under French control. Anti-clerical and anti-religious sentiment was running high among the French in the wake of the French Revolution, thus many of the Ursulines fled to Havana.
The head of the remaining Ursulines in New Orleans, Mother Saint Andre Madier, needed more sisters to come aid the struggling convent and Lousiana mission. She wrote to her cousin in France, another Ursuline, Mother Saint Michel. She pleaded with Mother Saint Michel to send more sisters. Mother Saint Michel knew that this was going to be a nearly impossible request: due to the persecution of religious men and women during the revolution, France was itself experiencing a shortage of sisters.
Feeling that she had to aid her cousin as much as possible, Mother Saint Michel wrote to a French bishop, requesting a transfer of French sisters to America. The bishop referred her to the pope.
Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon, thus his access to mail was extremely limited, to say the least. Mother Saint Michel sent her letter and prayed in front of a statue of the Madonna, vowing to have Mary honored in New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, if she would grant her letter a speedy and favorable response. Just over a month later, Mother Saint Michel received a letter from Pope Pius VII granting her and several sisters permission to go to New Orleans.
In December of the next year, Mother Saint Michel arrived in New Orleans with a crew of postulants and the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. They placed the statue in the chapel of the Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street in New Orleans, where it is still honored today.
The image to the right and below shows a mosaic honoring Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the Ursuline Convent garden. The mosaic was created in 1997 by the Florentine artist Sergio Papucci. Around the border, it names two of the famous miracles in which Our Lady of Prompt Succor has interceded for the people of New Orleans.
In the fire of 1812, as the fire was approaching the convent, the sisters begged Our Lady of Prompt Succor for her intercession, and the fire shifted, sparing the convent. It was one of the few buildings in the old French quarter preserved from the flames. In 1815, on the eve of the Battle of New Orleans, the sisters prayed throughout the night with the American troops for their success in battle against the British, who more than twice outnumbered them in manpower. On the morning of January 8, the sisters offered Mass in their chapel for the American army. In the middle of Mass, a messenger arrived announcing the defeat of the British, who had gotten lost in the swampy area outside the city. Ever since, a Mass of Thanksgiving has been offered to Our Lady of Prompt Succor on January 8.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, who always desires to aid your children in times of need—pray for us!
Image Credits: The image of the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the Ursuline Convent chapel is by SICDAMNOME and was last accessed November 14, 2024 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The image of the Battle of New Orleans mosaic, "Our Lady of Prompt Succor," was taken by Mike Young of Mike's Travel Guide. Used with permission.
