One Minute Reflection – 26 June – “… Go show yourself to the priest”

One Minute Reflection – 26 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Friday of the Twelfth week in Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings 2 Kings 25:1-12, Psalm 137:1-6, Matthew 8:1-4 and the Memorial of Blessed Andrea Giacinto Longhin OFM.Cap (1863 – 1936) Bishop

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you tell no-one but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.’” … Matthew 8:4

REFLECTION – “What then was the gift that was to be brought by the leper according to the law?   “Two small birds,” one of which the priest killed “over running water.”   Taking “cedar wood and broken scarlet and hyssop” and the living bird, he dipped them “in the blood of the slain bird, over running water.”   He anointed the right ear, hand and foot of the leper who was cleansed.   He sent the living bird outside the city, “into the open field.”
Observe, therefore, how perfectly Christ depicts these things for us.   By the living bird you may understand the living, heavenly Word.
By the blood of the slain bird, you should understand the blood of our suffering Lord, for whom, we say, that He suffered “in the flesh,” rather than “in his own body.”
The cedar is a wood not prone to rot.   The incorruptible flesh, the body of Christ, “did not see corruption.”
Hyssop symbolises the effervescence, activity and power of the Spirit.
Scarlet intends the confession of the covenant made with blood.
The running water signifies the life-creating gift of baptism.
Through this baptism, whoever has become a leper through sin may be cleansed.
The sending of the living bird outside of the city teaches us to abandon this world, as did Christ in His ascension into heaven.
Having thus come into the presence of God the Father, He makes intercession for all of us and we, therefore, shall be cleansed.
By the anointing of the leper’s right ear, hand and foot, we are taught that we must be, in contemplation and in action and in our way of life, in touch with divine things.” … St Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) Father known as “The Pillar of the Faith” Doctor of the Incarnation (Fragment 93)

PRAYER – Enable me loving Father, to live a life of purity that will make me live in You.   Let me be so united with You that whatever I might ask will be in total accord with Your will for me.   Bl Andrea Giacinto Longhin, your tireless work and preaching for the glory of the Kingdom show us the way to sanctification, please intercede for us all. May Mary our Mother of Compassion, be our constant companion.   We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God for all eternity, amen.