FIRST READING (2 Kings 5:1-15a)
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."
So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."
And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."
But Naaman was angry, and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, `Wash, and be clean'?"
So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel."
GOSPEL (Luke 4:24-30)
When Jesus had come to Nazareth, he said to the people in the Synagogue: "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them he went away.
REFLECTIONS
Indifference and lack of faith.
(Word of Life Community)
Healing - GOD'S way - Dominican thoughts
Naaman, the Syrian, sought healing
from leprosy in the most conventional way
possible: by bringing gifts of silver, gold and fine
linens to the king of Israel whom he assumed
could get the ear of his people’s deity; a simple
exchange of goods for a cure to his ailment. As
the first reading explains, he was met with
indignation by the king with a literal tearing of
garments; the ultimate expression of “How
dare you!"
It was the prophet Elisha, however, who
turned the situation upside-down and showed
not only Naaman, but the king of Israel, that
trust was the key to experiencing God’s healing
power. Elisha was a man of deep prayer in
relationship with God; but Naaman was not
ready to listen. The river was the wrong river,
why seven times of washing? Why can’t this guy
just wave a magic wand so I can be on my way?
It took the servants, who were probably
pensively (and prayerfully) watching by the
sidelines, to convince Naaman to stop fighting. I
wonder if those servants knew God was using
them as an instrument to bring Naaman into
relationship with Him?
God finds a way to get through to us
eventually, when we’re willing to be open to
hearing his voice from anyone and everyone we
encounter in our day. Sometimes this can be an
unsettling experience. How often do I find
myself in a situation where someone is speaking
an uncomfortable truth? Polarization has taken
on an air of familiarity in modern society. We
surround ourselves with like-minded people to
provide a sense of safety; so as not to rock the
boat . . . but Jesus was the ultimate boat-rocker.
Jesus gave the people something
unexpected. Jesus brought a message
proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God
as an inner space that gives room for the Holy
Spirit to allow milk and honey to flow within us
and out into the world.
Today, Jesus refers to a widow and a
leper as those favored by God. This message
was not accepted easily. In fact, everyone
present in the synagogue at the time was
enraged. Jesus eventually gave his very life in
payment for upsetting the delicate balance of
Israeli society under Roman occupation. Those
who knew him the best, probably since his childhood in
Galilee, had
their ears
especially
closed to
what he was saying. Who does he think he is? He’s just the
son of a carpenter.
How would we respond in a similar
situation? What would we say if a friend or
acquaintance suddenly started proclaiming the
coming of God’s kingdom to us? The challenge
we have during this Lenten season is to resist
the temptation to join those who would throw
the prophets in our midst off the nearest cliff,
get out of our comfort zones, and listen, as
Naaman eventually did, to let the Holy Spirit do
its work of healing within us. What message of
the Gospel am I unwilling to hear today?
FURTHERMORE . . .
The river Jordan plays a very important role in the Bible. Before it becomes the river in which Jesus the Messiah baptized, it is revealed as the river which bounds the "Promised Land." To cross the Jordan, for the people of Israel, was to enter into the fulfillment of the Lord's promises. It was to enter the "land flowing with milk and honey," the place where God would dwell with His people providing them with the endless blessings of His presence.
In the New Testament, with it spiritual and mystical fulfillment of the Old, to cross the Jordan was to enter into the Kingdom of God, to experience the fullness of the life of the age to come. The fact that Moses was not blessed to cross the Jordan thus became a symbol of the fact that the Law by itself could not save Israel or the world. It had to be Joshua, which literally means Savior, and is the Hebrew form of the Greek word Jesus, who leads the people across the Jordan and into the promised land, thus symbolizing the saving action of the new Joshua, Jesus the messianic Savior, in the covenant of grace (see Joshua 1:12).
When Joshua came to the Jordan the streams parted at the presence of God's people, with the priests bearing in their hands the Ark of the Covenant. As the waters of the sea parted to allow God's people to pass through as if on dry land at their exodus from Egypt, so also at the entry into the land of promise, the river of Jordan made way for God's people to pass through into the place of their final destination (Joshua 3:11-13).
The Lord also commanded Joshua to take twelve stones out of the river Jordan and to place them together in one place in a pile where the people had passed through, to remain "to the people of Israel as a memorial forever" of what the Lord had done for them (Joshua 4:8-10).
After the people passed through the Jordan River, "the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before." (Joshua 4:18) This miraculous wonder became part of the living memory of Israel, and the event was celebrated in the worship of God's people ever since. The psalms which recall the divine action are sung at the Church's festival of the Epiphany as prefigurations of God's final act of the salvation of all people in the death and resurrection of His Anointed, the Beloved Son who was baptized in the same Jordan streams.
"What ails you, O Sea that you flee O Jordan, that you turn back?... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob" (Psalm 114:5,7)
The river Jordan was also parted by the passage of Elijah and Elisha, an event also recalled at the liturgy of Epiphany. (2 Kings 2) And it was from the Jordan that Elijah was taken up into heaven in order to return again, as the tradition developed, to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. (See Mt 17:9-13) It was also in the Jordan that Naaman the Syrian was cleansed from his leprosy, a sign referred to by Jesus as a prefiguration of the salvation of all people, not only those of Israel. (Lk. 4:27) In the account of Naaman's cure the special significance of the Jordan is stressed once again.
"He [Naaman] went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." (2 Kings 5:13,14)
Can we not be washed in just any river and be clean? God answers, No. Only in the Jordan, in the baptism of Christ, are we cleansed from all of our sins. Only through the Jordan do we enter into the land of the living, the Promised Land of God's kingdom. Only by the sanctified waters of the Jordan does God sanctify us forever.
The River Jordan turned back of old,
Before Elisha's mantle when Elijah ascended.
The waters were made to part in two,
So the wet surface became a dry path.
This was in truth a symbol of baptism
By which we pass through mortal life.
Christ has come to the Jordan to sanctify the waters.
- Troparion of the prefeast of Epiphany.
(Fr. Thomas Hopko, in his book "The Winter Pascha")
PRAYER
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt,
rank me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low by thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
John Wesley (1703-1791)
