Naaman contracted leprosy.
Naaman journeyed to Israel and sought out Elisha, the said prophet.
Instead, sent his servant to tell Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan river, and he would be clean. Naaman was insulted by this, having expected Elisha to come in person and perform a dramatic ritual or miracle. He prepared to leave in a huff to return to Syria, but his servants persuaded him to follow the prophet’s instructions
Naaman descends to the Jordan and washes.
Naaman is “converted” by his experience. He lays off the worship of the pagan gods of Syria and devotes himself solely to the LORD, the God of Israel. Thus his request for two mule-loads of earth. He intends to being the dirt back to Syria, and build an altar on top for sacrifices to the LORD of Israel.
Naaman is a type of the believer in Christ. We need to humble ourselves to wash in the Jordan—that is, to receive baptism—in order to be healed of our spiritual leprosy.
Naaman's humbling of himself to follow the simple instructions of Elisha have great instructive value in our own lives of discipleship.
Perhaps too often we want fireworks and ecstatic experiences, whereas a stable spiritual life may be had by simple prayer, taking the Eucharist in faith, and making a habit of that most humble of Sacraments, Confession.
ancient Psalm gives thanks to God for revealing himself not only to Israel but to all the “nations” or “Gentiles” as well.
we observe a common theme with the First Reading, in which God revealed his power to the Gentile Naaman, and through him to all of Syria
Second Reading continues its march through St. Paul’s letters to individuals
2nd Epistle to Timothy, composed while Paul was in prison, possibly just before his execution.
We recall that to David the kingship of the entire earth was promised. He was to be “the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Ps 89:27).
Jesus son of David has become the greatest king of all the earth, especially in Rome and over the Romans, who were holding Paul captive as he wrote this letter.
St. Paul means to affirm, on the one hand, the fidelity is necessary on our part: “If we deny him, he will deny us.” Nonetheless, even if we fall into unfaithfulness, there is room to hope in Christ's mercy
The Samaritans were mixed-race descendants of the ten northern tribes of Israel, who were conquered and exiled by the Assyrian empire
They were related to the Jews and practiced essentially the same religion, but worshipped at a different temple and kept different “kosher” laws
Jesus was well aware of corruption in the priesthood
Despite that, the written word of God by Moses had a procedure for the cleansing of leprosy, and Jesus follows it.
All the lepers are cleansed, but only one—the Samaritan—returns to thank Jesus. “He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him”—this is virtually an act of worship.
both the Gospel and the First Reading, we have foreigners (Syrian and Samaritan) who are cured of leprosy, and whose response is grateful worship.
Readings are leading us to understand worship as an expression of gratitude. This is especially true of the central act of Catholic worship
Today’s readings are calling us to recognize that we, the vast majority of whom are Gentile “foreigners”, have been cured of our terminal spiritual leprosy by washing in the humble waters of Baptism.
attendance at Sunday Mass, for many reasons. One of these is that the Mass is our highest expression of thanks and gratitude for what God has done in our lives.
