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| The Healing of Naaman |
2 Kings 5:14-17
Psalm 98:1-4
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
As we find ourselves in the thick
of college football season, I am continually struck by the intense animosity
and sometimes outright hatred that fans can have for other teams, especially
major rivals from their conference. The constant back and forth that can go on
between them is almost reminiscent of the fued that we find in the Scriptures
between the Jewish people and the Samaritans, non-Jewish people in the area of
Israel. These two people had a longstanding and deep-seated hatred of one
another and did their best not to have to interact with each other in any real
sense since each saw the other as inferior to themselves. That powerful wedge
between these two people is the background that we have to be attentive to as
we approach the readings today.
In the Second Book of Kings we
hear the story of Naaman, a Samaritan, being cleansed from his leprosy through
the advice of Elisha the Jewish prophet. The fact that these two were talking
with one another is something that would have shocked and even angered many
people of their day. But they put aside all the expectations, social stigma,
and their own biases in order to come to experience something more profound.
Naaman humbles himself to approach the Elisha, which shows the extent to which
he desired to be freed from the leprosy. In turn we see Elisha humble himself
and receive the leprous Samaritan, which would have been doubly cast aside from
the Jewish people. And when the two of them set aside those things that often
separate them, we see that miracles happen. First, Naaman is cleansed. But note
also that this cleansing is a spiritual one too, as he walks away recognizing
that it was the God of Israel who was responsible for it. He has a conversion
experience, which is why he makes the odd request to have two mule-loads of
dirt. Often people thought that gods were territorial – a god was powerful over
a certain place – so to take two loads of dirt was to bring a piece of Israel
with him to his homeland, that the Lord whom he had encountered might be with him
and continue to be worshipped by him even in his own land. All because they
were willing to humble themselves and take a chance.
That story also foreshadows the
story we hear of Jesus from Luke’s Gospel, this time with ten lepers being
cleansed by the Lord. The leper who is nameless, a significant point which Luke
places for us to be able to insert ourselves into the story, returns to Jesus
alone rather than accompanied by the other nine after their healing. And from
the words of Jesus it seems that this leper might have been the only one of the
group that was not Jewish – he was a Samaritan. And yet he returns to the Lord
and professes faith because he recognizes the miracle done and the One who had
accomplished it, much like Naaman in the first reading. For this return the
Lord speaks those blessed words to him, “Stand up and go. Your faith has saved
you.” It wasn’t just faith that they would be healed that saved him – all ten
had that faith, else they wouldn’t have gone to the priests as commanded – but
rather the faith that led him to recognize the giver of the gift and return.
Here too we encounter a person not of the Jewish faith encountering the God of
Israel and experiencing a conversion of heart.
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| The actual chains from St. Paul's imprisonment in Rome |
In his Second Letter to Timothy
we heard St. Paul encourage him “Remember Jesus Christ…” This word from St.
Paul is spoken to his brother to remind him of why we do what we do as
Christians. It is not for our glory or pleasure, but the glory of God –
Remember Jesus Christ. When things get difficult it is for us to be mindful of
Christ Jesus, what He has done for us, and what we are called to do for Him. As
Christians, and especially each of you as laity in the Church, the mission is
to continue the work begun by the Lord. St. Paul writes, “I bear with everything
for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation
that is in Christ Jesus.” He literally endured his imprisonment and sufferings
in that time knowing that something good would come from it, and that something
was that others would come to know salvation in Christ.
So the question remains for us:
who are ‘the chosen ones’ of our own day? Like Naaman and the unnamed leper in
the Gospel, there are many who are simply waiting to come into contact with the
True God. That fact is clear by the empty seats in the church each weekend. Our
community is large enough that we should be a full church each Mass, and yet we
are not. There are souls in our community – friends, family, school mates,
co-workers, neighbors - who are in need of an invitation to draw near to God,
to encounter Him for themselves, and to find healing in whatever may ail them.
What keeps us from reaching out to them? Naaman, Elisha, and others showed us
that when we set aside everything in hopes for a miracle, sometimes they
happen. So who are the chosen ones the Lord desires us to reach out to and help
bring to salvation? And are we willing to bear all things that they might find
it?
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