Eventide & Altar

The man in today's Gospel has lived with a withered hand for who knows how long. Long enough, probably, that he'd stopped expecting it to change and simply built a life around the limitation. Then Jesus tells him to stretch it out, in front of a crowd that includes people hoping the whole scene fails.

There's something in that worth sitting with at this stage of life, when so much has already been carried a long time - a grief that's become familiar, a limitation you've made peace with, a way of living around something rather than through it. The healing in this story doesn't come with a private moment to prepare. Jesus asks the man to act, in public, before the outcome is certain.

Paul's words in the first reading are sharper than usual - a call to clear out what's been quietly tolerated, because a little yeast works through the whole batch eventually. It's not a comfortable word, but there's mercy underneath it: better to deal with something now, plainly, than to let it define everything around it for years to come.

The Joyful Mysteries tonight, Monday's day. Pray them for someone who has lived a long time with a limitation - physical or otherwise - and hasn't yet asked for it to be healed.

• For all who have carried a long-standing limitation, that they would find the courage to stretch out their hand when asked, we pray to the Lord.
• For the grace to clear out what has quietly been tolerated for too long, before it works through everything else, we pray to the Lord.
• For those watching us, hoping for our failure, that we would be moved to do good regardless, we pray to the Lord.

Call someone tonight who has lived with a long-standing burden - illness, loss, a limitation of any kind - and simply ask how they're carrying it today. Don't offer solutions. Let them tell you.