(Homily
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C)
At the heart of today’s message is the
theme of gratitude or thanksgiving. Gratitude
is disarming; it paves way for favors and benevolence. On the other hand, as
Shakespeare wrote in his play King Lear, “How sharper than a serpent's tooth it
is to have a thankless child”. Truly, nothing is quite so hurtful as to be
consistently taken for granted, without ever a word of thanks or praise. In fact, the Gospel passage gives us a glimpse into the
heart of Jesus, when he receives or does not receive gratitude. Indeed, one of
the most satisfying feelings is to receive a sincere “Thank you” for a service
rendered and appreciated. It was because of ‘thank you’ that Naaman went back
to Elisah, because of ‘thank you’ the Samaritan leper went back to Jesus, and
equally because of gratitude St. Paul remained in chains for fidelity and
appreciation of what Jesus has done in his life. Alongside the theme of gratitude is that of the obedience of faith,
which helps us to reflect on the readings of this Sunday by considering them
together in order to be aware of certain significant facts. The ten lepers in
the Gospel passage in obedience trusted the words of Jesus and they embarked on
a journey to present themselves to the priests, in order that the later, will
certify that they have been made clean. Again, in the first reading Naaman the
Syrian after much hesitation obeyed the words of Elisha, by the help of his
servant, immersing himself seven times in the River Jordan, and thus he was
made clean. It is on account of obedience of faith that St. Paul ended in
chains and had to suffer greatly for his faith and trust in God, for the
encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus healed him of spiritual blindness
and hatred towards Christians, little wonder, he succumbed to the obedience of
faith even to the extent of suffering harshly. Truly, Jesus is the great
Physician of both body and soul.
In the first reading (2Kgs. 5:14-17) we see the figure of a certain Naaman, an “army
commander to the King of Aram” (2Kgs.
5:1). Naaman was infected with leprosy on the body and his soul was unclean
for he worshiped in the temple of Rimon (2Kgs.5:18)
a pagan god. He was told to go and wash at River Jordan seven times in
order for him to be cleansed. At first he refused, and later agreed upon the
insistence of his servant, he agreed and bathed seven times in the River Jordan
and was healed. Afterwards, he went back to thank Elisha with a present, but
Elisha refused, because is God that healed him, his healing came forth as a
handiwork of God. As Naaman experienced and confirmed his total cleansing and
healing, he made his profession of faith thus: “Now I know there is no God
anywhere on earth except in Israel” (v.15).
Indeed, Naaman experienced
double-healing, for he was cured of the physical (leprosy) and spiritual
(uncleanliness) ailments.
Extrapolating from the above scenario, it is important to trust the ministers of
God, His authentic ministers and messengers. In the first reading when
Naaman the leper learnt from Prophet Elisha that he has to go to the river
Jordan to wash himself seven times in order to be healed, he rebelled and
protested: “Here was I, thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand
there, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the spot
and cure the part that was diseased. Surely, Abana and Parpar, the rivers of
Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and
become clean? And he turned round and went off in a rage” (2Kg. 5:11-12). But he would later follow the counsel of the prophet
and he will be healed. When the ministers
and messengers of God speak in the name of God, they are to be trusted and
listened to. In the words of Jesus: “As the Father sent me, so am I sending
you” (Jn. 20:21) and again “Anyone
who listens to you listens to me, anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those
who reject me reject the one who sent me” (Lk.
10:16).
The two episodes of the Word of God this Sunday
especially in the first reading and the Gospel, presents a sort of affinity and
evident points of convergence between them. In fact, the passage from the 2 kings can be considered as a kind of prelude or
prophetic anticipation of the narrative in the Gospel passage by St. Luke.
They two episodes present two cases of healing, one by immersion in the River,
through the instrumentality of Prophet Elisha, and the other by the words of
Jesus, the New Priest of the New
Covenant.
The Gospel periscope (Lk.
17:11-19) narrates the episode and encounter of Jesus and the ten lepers.
Situating us into the historical context of that time, leprosy then was a
symbol of divine punishment for one’s sin. It was regarded equally as a
contagious disease. Little wonder, the person infected with it is ostracized.
And to cure it, requires divine intervention or even a miracle that is why a
person cured from leprosy has to show himself to the priest, so that according
to the custom, the priest will certify truly that he has been made whole, and
thus can be welcomed back to the community. For the fact that lepers are isolated from the rest of the people, the
ten lepers maintained some distance from Jesus as they made their request,
our evangelist says: “They stood some way off” (v.12b). On encountering Jesus, the ten lepers were imploring him
to help them from afar, because according to the prescription of the Law:
“Anyone with a contagious skin-disease will wear torn clothing and disordered
hair, and will cover the upper lip and shout, “Unclean, unclean”. As long as
the disease lasts, such a person will be unclean and, being unclean, will live
alone and live outside the camp” (Lev.
13:45-46). But Jesus did not run away and treat them that way, when he
encountered them. They called Jesus and pleaded him: “Jesus! Master! Take pity
on us” (v.13). In fact, they were
not asking to be healed, rather is as if they were asking for sympathy for
their situation. And when Jesus saw them, he said to them, “Go and show
yourselves to the priests” (v.14a),
as the custom demands. And immediately without ifs and buts, they set out to go
to the priest, and instantly the miracle of healing and cleansing took place:
“Now as they were going away they were cleansed” (v.14b). Just at the words
and invitation of Jesus, they were healed. There is power indeed in the
words of Jesus.
Jesus told the ten lepers to go and
present themselves to the priests, but it is important to know that only cured
lepers can present themselves to the priests, so that they can certify the
healing. For as stipulated: “This is the law to be applied on the day of the
purification of someone who has suffered from a contagious skin-disease. Such a
person will be taken to the priest, and the priest will go outside the camp. If
he finds on examination that the person has recovered from the disease, he will
order the following to be brought for purification…” (Lev. 14:2-4). So, one may well presume that Jesus’ invitation to
them to go and present themselves to the priests when they have not been
healed, sounds like a joke. Instead they trusted in the words of Jesus and on
their way they discovered that they have been healed. This is what it means to believe in Jesus and his words: to trust
in him completely, to accept his words without hesitation and to put it into
practice without looking for excuses, even when he asks us to do something that
contradicts the human logic and understanding. It was similar to the episode
where Jesus told Peter to throw the net, and Peter said: “Master, we worked
hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the
nets” (Lk. 5:5).
Behold, the second part of the
story is quite interesting, encouraging and discouraging at the same time.
For while they were on their way to the priests, “Finding himself cured, one of
them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself
prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan” (vv.15-16). Indeed, Jesus wondered why
only one came back to say thank you, and he said to him: “It seems that no one
has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner. And he said to the
man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you” (vv.18-19), for his healing was not only
physical but also spiritual. Little wonder, Jesus alludes to his faith. His
healing was indeed, an integral healing. The
emphasis on the fact that this man was a Samaritan reveals that God’s salvation
is for all, it is no birthright of any people. As a matter of fact, at first, the situation and ailment of the
ten lepers led them to Jesus, but it was faith that led the Samaritan back to
Jesus to thank him. For he (the Samaritan) recognized in Jesus the Priest,
for this, he out of faith went back to him. Instead of going back to the Old Priests for certification, he comes to
the New Priest (Jesus) to say thank you and Jesus certified him. Truly, Jesus manifested that he is the New Priest
of the New Covenant: “Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved
you”. Child of God, when you are battered and embittered by the trials and difficulties
of this life, to whom do you go? The ten lepers went to Jesus. And one of them
still returned to him to thank him, when we receive favor, blessings and
healing from God, do we remember to show gratitude? Indeed, the Samaritan
teaches us to go to the New Way, and not the old way as did the other nine
lepers.
The episodes of the first reading and the
Gospel propel us to make a two-fold consideration: ●First, God in his actions towards men and woman is absolutely free, and as
such, cannot be conditioned by anyone, neither can He be confined within any
ethnic, religious and political barrier nor can He be manipulated by human
presumptions. In the two episodes the two persons that were made whole, one
was a pagan and the other a stranger, that is, two individuals outside the
Jewish religious circle, those considered to be excluded from God’s Kingdom.
And in fact, Jesus made reference to this episode when his kinsmen were
indulging him to do miracles for them as he has done in other places, “And in the
prophet Elisha’s time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in
Israel, but none of these was cured – only Naaman the Syrian” (Lk. 4:27). No one indeed, has the monopoly of God’s benevolence.
●Second, is the
obligation of gratitude towards God. We need to learn how to recognize the
benefits and blessings of the Lord in our lives, and as such, we cannot but
praise and thank Him. Conscious of this, St. Paul admonished: “I urged then,
first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be
offered for everyone” (1Tm. 2:1),
elsewhere he insistently urged the Christian communities to be “overflowing
with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7). Thus,
we need to cultivate the attitude of thanking and praising the Lord for the
benefits and favors he continues to bestow on us. How often do we find time and
consider it necessary during our moments of prayer to thank the Lord for his
benevolence. We need to cultivate more
the attitude of gratitude and do less of spiritual begging: ‘Lord give me
this, give me that. Do this for me, do that for me’. In the first reading,
Naaman recognized God’s intervention in his healing and as a sign of gratitude
and thanksgiving he made a commitment to worship only the God of Israel, the
True God and no more the false gods. Amongst the ten lepers healed by Jesus in
the Gospel only one came back to thank and praise him, and as a result, more
than the health of the body, he equally received salvation of his soul. But
Jesus must have felt bad: “Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where
are they? (v.17).
In the second reading (2Tm.
2:8-13) St. Paul was writing to his friend Timothy, he (Paul) was in prison
and in chains. He was treated as a miscreant because of his preaching, but he
writes: “It is on account of this that I have to put up with suffering, even to
being chained like a criminal. But God’s message cannot be chained” (v. 9). On the example of Paul we have
to be disposed to suffer for the love of Christ and his Gospel, “So I persevere
for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they, too, may obtain the
salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (v.10). St. Paul invites us to be ready to suffer all sorts of
things, ranging from incomprehension, derision, blasphemy, marginalization and
persecution, in as much as we bring someone to salvation in Christ. Let us implore the Lord to give us a
generous courage and holy audacity, for as St. Paul assured us: “If we have
died with him, then we shall live with him. If we persevere, then we shall
reign with him” (vv.11-12). This
attitude of Paul toward suffering could equally be seen as a way of showing
gratitude to God for rescuing him from darkness, for healing him from his own
“leprosy”. With that conviction, St. Paul maintained that God’s message cannot
be chained; it has to be proclaimed to Jews and Gentiles as well. He reaffirms the universality of God’s
salvation.
Above all, this attitude of gratitude and incessant prayer of thanksgiving should
not remain only at the level of verbal expressions and sentiments, but they
have to be incarnated in action, especially in the joyful proclamation of our
faith in the risen Christ. Naaman proclaimed his unalloyed loyalty to the God
of Israel, the Samaritan leper came to thank Jesus because he recognized in Him
the New Priest of the New Covenant and St. Paul as well exhorts us that the
best way of praising and thanking God is to accept suffering and persevere for
the sake of obtaining the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Beloved in Christ,
let us enroll ourselves into this attitude of gratitude and grateful
witnessing, as we make effort to become the “mouthpiece” of the Word and
heralds of God’s design of love. Happy
Sunday To You All!
(Fr. Vitus M.C.
Unegbu, SC)
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