SUNDAY READINGS - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: 2 Kings 5: 14-17. Naaman the Syrian went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of Elisha, the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed of his leprosy. 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; so accept now a present from your servant." But he said, "As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, "If not, I pray you, let there be given to your servant two mules' burden of earth; for hence-forth your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord."
EXPLANATION: Elisha from Thisbe in Galaad is the first of the great prophets in Israel after the separation of Israel from Judah. He lived during the reign of King Achab (869-850), who married a daughter of the pagan king of Tyre. She, backed by the king, introduced idolatry into Israel, and against this Elisha fought fearlessly. He is credited with many miracles, one of which is related in today's reading. Naaman, a pagan army-commander of the king of Aram, was struck with leprosy. He was advised by a slave-girl from Israel to go to the prophet of Samaria who would cure him. Having gone to the king's palace, at first thinking he must be a prophet, he eventually found Elisha. The prophet told him to bathe seven times in the Jordan river and he would be cured. Naaman thought this a ridiculous suggestion and was returning home indignant when his servants persuaded him to try what the prophet had told him to do. He did and was cured.
Elisha, the man of God: This title was first given to Moses who had been chosen by God to lead the people out of Egypt. Later it was applied to the prophets for they represented God before the people.
He returned: Naaman was very grateful and went back to Elisha to reward him but Elisha would take none of his gifts.
no God . . . earth: He professes his faith in the one and only God, that was the God of Israel. What other God could cure him so miraculously?
let . . . of earth: The pagans believed that their gods thrived only in their own locality, on their native earth. Naaman thought Yahweh, the God of Israel, could thrive only on the soil of Israel. So, as he wanted to serve Yahweh only from now on, he thought that he must have some of Israel's soil on which to build a sanctuary for him. Hence the request for two mule-loads of earth.
But the Lord: That is, except Yahweh, the God of Israel.
APPLICATION: God miraculously cured Naaman of his leprosy, through the instrumentality of his prophet Elisha. This might seem strange to us, for this man was a pagan who adored false gods and came from a pagan land. That he would work miracles on behalf of his Chosen People, the children of Abraham, in the land of Canaan which he gave to them, we can easily understand. But why this favor for one who did not even know him or respect him? God was the God of all peoples and all nations. He created them and he had planned heaven for them all. If he chose a certain people from among the nations of the world it does not mean that he had no interest in the others. If he revealed himself more fully and took a more active interest in the descendants of Abraham, he did this so that the salvation he had planned for all mankind, would come in due time to them all, as well as to his Chosen People. In the meantime the pagan peoples who did not know the true God were able to honor him in their own way. If they followed their consciences and kept their local customs and practices, even though these customs included giving honor to idols, man-made gods, he could and did tolerate this error and read into their false worship their human intent to give honor to their Master, and true God. The Chosen People had been given greater gifts, but God judged the pagan nations according to the gifts which he had given them. He judged the Jews according to the greater gifts he had given them. Both Jews and pagans were raised to the status of adopted sons of God, when the Incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ, the Son of God, took place. Its effects were retroactive. Heaven was opened for all mankind on the resurrection day and those who had acted in conformity with their knowledge and their consciences, whether Jews or pagans, were admitted to God's eternal mansions. Does this mean that we need not or should not bring Christ's message to those still living in paganism, whether they are in pagan lands or in lands which were once Christian? By no means. Firstly, because we have a command from Christ to preach his Gospel to all peoples and secondly, true love for God which any sincere Christian must have, should make him do all in his power to get all God's children to know him and to love him. Though the pagan can get assistance or grace directly from God if he is striving to live according to his lights, we who are Christians, and have the wonderful sources of grace which Christ left to his Church at our disposal, often find difficulty in living an upright life. How much more difficult for those poor people who have not the knowledge of God's infinite love for man, or of the mystery of the Incarnation, and who have not the sacraments to assist them? The Christian's journey to heaven may be compared to that of a man who goes by train from New York to San Francisco. He has some restrictions placed on his freedom. He cannot get out and tarry at some town on the way. His night's sleep may be disturbed by the shakings and rumblings of the speeding train. He has to be content with the food served by the dining car service. He has to associate with and put up with the talk and manners of his fellow-passengers. He is anxious above all, to get safely to San Francisco and if so he will count these difficulties as of very minor importance. The pagan's journey is like the man who has to make the same journey on foot. He will get to San Francisco if he perseveres. He will get help on the way, but the going is hard. He can stop where he likes, he can avoid unpleasant company but nevertheless it will be a tiring and a trying journey. He would certainly be grateful to the true friend who would buy him a ticket so that he too could go by rail. This we can do, and there are numerous ways open to us in which we can help our fellowman, still ignorant of God and of Christ. We can help to get them to know about God and about his plan for their eternal happiness. While staying on our train to heaven and while thanking God that he gave us our rail-ticket, let us help those who will otherwise have to make the journey on foot, if they are able. We can do so by example, by prayer and, if possible by alms.
SECOND READING: 2 Timothy 2: 8-13. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my Gospel, the Gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which in Christ Jesus goes with eternal glory. The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful---for he cannot deny himself.
EXPLANATION: In last Sunday's extract from this same Epistle, St. Paul exhorts his convert and disciple to be proud of the Gospel, the message of hope which he has to preach. He must guard the rich treasure of the faith he has received from Paul and hand it on to the next generation. Today, he reminds Timothy of the resurrection of Jesus, the crowning act of divine drama of our redemption.
Remember Jesus . . . David: Paul tells Timothy not to forget that Jesus was truly human---a descendant of David---and died like any human being. He was also the fulfillment of the prophecies made ten centuries earlier, when Nathan the prophet told David that a descendant of his would establish his throne forever (2 Sam. 7: 16).
risen from the dead: God raised Christ's human nature from the dead as the prophets of old and Christ himself had foretold several times. The disciples did not believe it as their behavior on Easter Sunday shows. They still thought that he was a mere man, with great powers from God yes, but still a mere man like themselves. This was because he hid his divinity all through his earthly life. When the Father raised him from the dead however, in a new glorified body, he took up again all his divine glory and was placed at the Father's right hand in heaven.
preached in my Gospel: The resurrection of Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, was and ever will be the basic central dogma of our Christian faith. The Son of God became man, one of us, he united our human nature with the divine in his own Person and thus made us, mere men, sharers in the divinity of God. This was Paul's message to the world. This is still the message of the Christian religion.
wearing fetters: Paul has suffered and has been imprisoned for preaching this message of divine, infinite love and mercy for us mortals. When men should shout for joy at the good news, they tried instead to silence those who proclaimed this message of consolation and joy.
word . . . fettered: It is vain for men to try to impede and block the mercy of God---the good news will spread and millions upon millions will hear it and profit by it.
salvation . . . in Christ Jesus . . . eternal glory: Paul therefore gladly accepts all he has to suffer so that his fellowman of all nations and of all times will be able to profit by what Christ's Incarnation has won for them---an unending life of happiness and glory in God's heavenly kingdom.
If we have died with him: Besides the reference here to Christian baptism in which the person baptized was fully immersed in the water, a symbol of dying and being buried with Christ, and then being raised up out of the water, a symbol of the resurrection with Christ, there is also a reference to the physical sufferings and even physical death, martyrdom, which a true Christian will endure if loyal to Christ.
if we . . . him: The Christian must persevere in his faith and in his loyalty to Christ until death, whether natural or imposed by enemies of the faith, sets him free. His death will be the beginning of his true and lasting life, his grave the door to heaven.
If we deny him: The Christian who fails Christ because of his own personal weakness or because of fear of the physical sufferings with which the enemies of Christ were threatening him, cannot expect Christ to welcome him when he meets him at the moment of his death. "I know you not" will be Christ's salutation to those who deny him on earth (see Mt. 10:33).
he remains faithful: It is not Christ who changes but his unfaithful followers. Christ wants all in heaven, and that intention and desire of his is unchangeable, but those who refuse to follow him to the end he cannot force. On the judgment day, the sheep will be on the right hand of Christ, the goats on the left. All were Christ's sheep, some became goats through their own fault, they cannot change back to become sheep by then, and not even Christ can change them (Mt. 25:31ff).
APPLICATION: Timothy, a faithful follower of Christ and of his teacher, St. Paul, and a man who spent his life preaching the Christian faith, and finally gave his life for it. If he needed reminding of the essence of Christianity, how much more do we Christians of the twentieth century need this reminder. We too have died and risen to a new life with Christ in our baptism. In parenthesis. I hope the Church will bring back baptism by total immersion, it expressed so vividly the death of the natural man in imitation of Christ's death and burial, and the rising up from the grave to a new supernatural life in and with Christ. However, this is exactly what the baptism received by all and which made us Christians, members of Christ's mystical body, signified and actuated in us. We were made new men, raised to the supernatural status of sons of God, and set on the road to heaven, the eternal heritage which the Incarnation won for US. How often during the weeks, months, years of our lives do we really think seriously of what being a Christian means to us? How many mornings in our lives as we dress and prepare for another day's work do we remember that the coming twenty-four hours are bringing us another day nearer to our final examination on which all our eternity depends? It is not the work we do that makes any difference. It is the right intention with which we approach it and the honesty with which we carry it out. The monk who from his vocation gives his day to prayer and spiritual exercises, but who gives it grudgingly and completely forgetting God who has registered twenty-four hours on the debit page of his life's record. The bricklayer who had barely time to make a short morning offering, but who made it, and honestly spent his day laying one monotonous brick on another, doing so for the honor and glory of God, as part of his life's task, has his twenty-four hours written in gold on his account book. It is not our vocation in life, nor the occupation or place we hold in the society in which we live, that will assure or impede our success or failure in our final examination. It is the intention and the manner in which we carry out whatever role in life God has allotted to us. Shakespeare, a man of wisdom, says this world is a stage whereon each man must play his part. The success of any play depends on how each member of the cast plays his or her role. The little servant-maid who brings the coffee-tray to the queen or the star, and who does it properly with a true appreciation of her humble role, is as responsible for the play's success as the queen or star may be. We pass across the stage of this life only once. We have no rehearsals or no repeats. If we are sincere Christians, we know where we are going, we'll go off the stage through the right door. God is infinitely merciful and pardons sins and mistakes again and again. The Christian who ignores the calls to repentance sent him so often in his lifetime, can hardly be surprised if he ignores the last and final call also, and finds himself unrepentant at God's judgment seat. Let us listen to the voice of God today. We have yet time to put things right, if up to now we have been neglectful in our duty as Christians. We died with Christ in baptism. We promised to live for and with him during our stay on this earth. He promised us a resurrection to an eternally happy life if we kept our word. Baptism has already put us on the right road to heaven. There are obstacles and difficulties scattered along that road but we are forewarned and therefore forearmed to face them. Paul, Timothy, Peter, Andrew and all the other thousands of saints who are today in heaven met the same obstacles which we have to meet and even greater ones. They were as human and as weak as we are. They won their battles---so can we. The same graces which God gave them he is only too glad to give us. All we need to do is to ask for them and then to use them. Christ became man so that I could become a son of God. Christ died so that I might live eternally. Christ was raised from the dead and went to heaven to prepare a place for me there. I, too, shall rise from the dead and occupy that place which he has prepared for me, if I live my short life on earth as my Christian faith tells me I should live it.
GOSPEL: Luke 17: 11-19. On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."
EXPLANAIION: Leprosy, a disease still prevalent in warm climates, was widespread in the Middle East at the time of Christ, and was not unknown in Europe. Those suffering from it were segregated and lived in leper-colonies outside the towns and villages. They depended on alms for their subsistence. They had to warn anyone who approached them of their condition, by ringing a bell and shouting "unclean," as the disease was held to be highly contagious.
stood . . . distance: As the law prescribed, they did not come near Jesus, but they shouted from a distance.
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us: They had heard of him. They knew his name. They had heard of his miracles. They ask him to cure them.
Go . . . to the priests: The Mosaic law prescribed that it was the duty of Aaron and his descendants---the priests of the Temple,---to examine a man suspected of leprosy. If the priest decided that it was leprosy this man had to be isolated from the people. If a man thought that the leprosy had left him he had to go to the priest and get a declaration that he was cured of the disease before he could return to live in his community (see Lev. 13-14). Jesus complied with the Mosaic law.
as . . . cleansed: The disease did not disappear on the spot, as was the case with other cures which he worked. He tested their faith. They saw the disease had not left them---if they doubted his power they would say, "what is the use going to the priest, we are still 'unclean'?" But they did believe in his power, and found themselves rid of the disease on their way.
one of them . . . back: The moment he realized that Jesus had cured him, and before going to the priest, he would do that later, one of the ten returned thanking God in a loud voice.
at . . . feet: He prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus---a sign of deepest respect and honor--and expressed his gratitude by praising the goodness and kindness of Jesus.
was a Samaritan: He was one of the descendants of that mixed race of pagans and Jews who inhabited the northern part of Palestine ever since the schism which divided the kingdom of David and Solomon into two hostile camps, when Solomon's son Jeroboam succeeded to his father's throne (931 B.C., see 1 Kgs. 12). The northern separatists were reduced in numbers at the time of Christ and lived mostly in the town of Samaria and its environs. Hence the name Samaritans. They were still bitterly opposed to the Jews.
ten . . . cleansed: Jesus expressed his surprise that the other nine did not return to thank him.
except this foreigner: And the nine who did not come to show their gratitude were his own compatriots. This "foreigner," outsider, as indeed he was both in religion and in race; the Samaritans had their own place of worship and did not come to the Temple of Jerusalem. It was therefore, all the more surprising that he should be more grateful than the other nine who should have known better.
your faith . . . well: His faith also, his trust in the power of Christ, and his sense of obedience were greater than those of the other nine. He was willing to go to a Jewish priest and comply with the Mosaic law even though he was not bound by it, but he would do it because Jesus told him to do so. He is now told to go his way, there is no need for him to go to the Jewish priest. He merited his cure because of his great faith and trust.
APPLICATION: This incident of the ten lepers happened as our Lord was on his way to Jerusalem, where he was to die on the cross so that we could live eternally. The Church brings it before our minds today, not so much to remind us of the mercy and kindness of Jesus to all classes, even the outcasts, as lepers were, as to make us see and be amazed at the depths of ingratitude to which men can sink. This is but one of many such examples of ingratitude that occurred during Christ's public ministry, most of those he miraculously cured forget to thank him. In today's incident there was one, and he was the one least expected to do so, who had the decency to return and thank his benefactor. This pleased our Lord and led him to remark on the ingratitude of the others. "Were not all ten made whole, where are the other nine?" He was surprised and also sad for their sakes, not for his own. They missed greater graces through this lack of appreciation and gratitude. All ten showed great faith and confidence in Jesus' power to heal. They had not heard him preach nor had they seen any of his miracles. They lived in isolation camps, yet they believed the reports they had heard. They all were very obedient too. They set off for Jerusalem to carry out the command of Jesus, even though their leprosy had not yet left them. In all of this it was their own self-interest which came first in the minds of the nine Jews. Once they found their leprosy gone all they thought of was their own good fortune. Their Benefactor was quickly forgotten. The Samaritan's first thought, on the other hand, was of the one who had healed him. He was as delighted as the others with his cure but being generous and thoughtful for others, he felt it his bounden duty to return and thank the man who had done him this miraculous good turn. While we are ashamed of our fellow-men who were so ungrateful, and who treated the loving Jesus so shamefully, let us see if we have improved very much in our way of acting towards our Savior. Those Jewish lepers did not know that he was the Son of God who assumed human nature, became man, in order to raise us up to a new supernatural status. He gave them the gift of physical health for thirty, forty, or maybe sixty years more. We know that he has come to give us an eternal life---a life that will last forever, a life free from all troubles and worries "where all tears will be wiped away and death shall be no more." With this knowledge then of what Christ means to us, of what his Incarnation has won for us, of the eternal freedom from all sickness and death which his human life, death and resurrection have put at our disposal, how can any real Christian ever cease thanking him, could there be such a being as an ungrateful Christian ever on earth? Unfortunately, there is not only one such ungrateful being, but there are millions of them. How many of us here present are numbered amongst these ungrateful ones? There are those of us who think of God only when we are in difficulties. While things are going well, when there is no sickness in the home, when our business is prospering, when there is peace all around us, how many times in the week do we say "thank you, God, you are very good to me." When trouble strikes it is a different matter. We rush to church, we implore God to have pity on us, we make novenas to our special saints. This is not wrong. What is wrong, however, is that we forgot to thank God all the time that he was giving us spiritual and temporal favors. Think for a moment. If those nine ungrateful lepers were struck again with disease some months later and returned to implore Christ for a cure, would you blame him if he refused? Most of us would refuse. Yet we expect him to listen to our urgent pleas the minute we make them, while we have not given him a thought and never said one "thank you, Lord," while things were going well with us. We all need to be more grateful to God every day of our lives---more grateful than we have been. He has not only given us life on this earth with its joys and its sorrows, but he has prepared for us a future life where there will be no admixture of sorrows. It is for that life that we are working. It is because there is a heaven after death that we are Christians. God has already done his part in preparing this heaven for us. He is assisting us daily to get there. We need a lot of that assistance and one of the surest ways of getting further benefits from God (as well as from men) is to show true gratitude for the benefits already received.
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