28th. Sunday, Year (C)
(2 Kings 5:14-17; 2nd.
Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19)
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Gospel reading gives us important guidance concerning our spiritual life. All true disciples of Jesus want to become fervent ones who sincerely love the Lord, and who, indeed, might possibly become worthy of a truly personal relationship with Him; and, in our recent Sunday Gospel readings, we have heard advice from Jesus on how we can achieve that desire. Just last week we were told by the Lord that we must not look for quick, earthly, rewards since here on earth we are servants whose job it is to work for the Lord, not to look for personal comforts and satisfactions.
Today, we have another piece of essential advice for our
spiritual growth … and by that, I mean our growth as children of God before our
Father in heaven, not as persons approved by the vociferous, ever trendy, society
around us, for ‘That which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the
sight of God’ (Luke 16:15) is Jesus’ opinion of such social aspirations.
As Jesus continued His journey to Jerusalem He travelled
through Samaria and Galilee. Entering a certain village, ten
lepers met Him; they stood at a distance from Him and raised their voices saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
When He saw them,
Jesus said, “Go, show
yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that, as they were on their way to the priests, they were
cleansed. One of them -- when he saw that he was healed
– returned, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell down at the feet of
Jesus giving Him thanks. Now, he was a
Samaritan.
So, Jesus said:
Ten
were cleansed were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give
thanks to God?
It is well-nigh impossible to
imagine that instant when those erstwhile lepers first realized, almost
incredulously, what had happened to them!
That horrible, flesh-devouring process, that cursed disease which had cut
them off from all familiar contact with family, loved ones, friends, indeed,
from all healthy human society, had gone … IT was no more!! IT
had simply disappeared, and they were no longer ugly and repulsive; now, they
were normal like everyone else, and they would soon be able to meet with
others in homely and familiar surroundings, doing ordinary, every-day things,
so lovingly remembered and so deeply missed!
But, what else do you think
they might well, indeed aught to, have felt?
Surely, at the centre of that volcanic upsurge of
joy and relief, they should have felt burning gratitude too? We know for a fact that at least one of them
did: for he had to return to Jesus without any delay to
thank Him. The others were, perhaps, so
excited at their recovery of health that they simply forgot all else; or else it
might be that some were so desirous of getting the priests to officiously witness
their new-found cleanliness -- which was necessary before they could officially
be allowed to join ordinary people once again -- that they did not feel able to
show their gratitude until after they had been certified as clean; Yet others
may have felt they had first of all to visit family and friends and begin
picking up the threads of their previous lives once again. Nevertheless, in all those ‘other’ cases, failure
to respond immediately to the grace of God cost them the opportunity to express
their gratitude to Jesus P/personally, for He had gone on His way, saddened by
their failure to return to Him.
Now, that is something of the
utmost importance in the spiritual life, People of God. We are indeed blessed if we feel in our heart
gratitude to God for whatever blessing it may be: appreciation for the children
of a loving marriage, or the gift of true friendship, experiencing moments of
clear awareness of the beauty of God’s creation, being awe-struck at
manifestations of His power, being astounded at His wisdom in the Scriptures,
and at His supreme goodness and love in the gift of His beloved, only-begotten,
Son for our salvation. There are,
indeed, countless ways in which God and His grace can touch our hearts at any
given time, and every one of them is a priceless blessing if we respond immediately:
One of them, realizing he had been healed, returned,
glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell the feet of Jesus and thanked Him. He was a Samaritan.
You notice that only one, a Samaritan, responded immediately to the Holy
Spirit at work in his heart and went back to first of all give grateful
thanks to Jesus, and he was not considered to be a religious man as were
the other nine, all of them Israelites; according, that is, to the common Jewish
appreciation in those times. But of
course, for very many people, the practice of religion was then -- as it still is today for very
many -- all about performing duties and obligations in order to save their religious standing as persons
supposedly acceptable to God, rather than as a practice enabling them to experience
true communion of mind and heart
with the Lord Who died to save them and the Father Who had called them
through His Son, to Himself.
It is a noble ambition, dear People of God, an admirable desire, to be a
true Christian. It is, of course, the vocation
of all Catholics, and one which has touched the hearts of many disciples of
Jesus at some time or other; but sadly, those who respond whole-heartedly to such
a calling and perseveringly seek to fulfil its demands are no more numerous than the one out of ten cleansed lepers: Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed were they not? Where
are the other nine? Has none but this
foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” There, that word
‘foreigner’ expresses not disdain for a Samaritan, but Jesus’ Personal and deep
Israelite sorrow, at what was a grievous failure for those whom His Father had
called to be His Chosen People.
One of the great causes of would-be-disciples
losing their way is thus pointed out to us by the Lord today: count it a
blessing to experience and to recognize, the mysterious working of the Spirit
of God in your heart, but you must try to respond immediately, for that
is a supremely important step on the way to closer intimacy with the Lord.
There is further instruction
for us on this matter in our first reading today where, as you will recall,
Naaman, the Syrian army commander, having bathed in the Jordan at Elisha’s
command found himself miraculously cured of his disease. His heart was not just
touched by the grace of God, it was truly moved, and being humbled with
consuming gratitude, he forgot all about his own dignity as a royal representative
with imperious royal duties, and he immediately:
Returned, with his whole retinue, to the man of
God.
On his arrival Naaman stood before him and said, “Now
I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.” “As the LORD lives Whom I serve I will
not take it” Elisha replied. And despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused.
Why did Elisha so bluntly, even so vehemently, refuse
Naaman’s grateful gift? Let us turn back the pages of our
Bible and read Genesis 14:23:
Abram
replied to the King of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD, the Creator of heaven
and earth, that I would not take so much
as a thread or a sandal strap from anything that is yours, lest you should say,
‘I have made Abram rich.’
Elisha, under God’s guidance and in imitation of Abraham,
refused to accept Naaman’s gift – a gift offered in sincerity of heart – lest
Naaman should then have thought that he had settled his debt with Elisha’s God,
indeed, settled it with generosity. God
was choosing Naaman for purposes unknown to him, with the result that being
unable to pay his debt to the man of God as he would have liked, Naaman’s sense
of honour (heightened by God’s grace) would not allow him to forget what had
been done for him in the land of Israel by a prophet of Israel’s
God. Therefore, he requested of Elisha earth from Israel in order to pray
acceptably, as he thought, to the God Who had restored his flesh, through the
prophet’s intercession and by his own washing in the Jordan.
Personal prayer of worship and thanksgiving to the God of Israel
Who, through His prophet, had cleansed him ...where would that lead Naaman? What were God’s plans for him??
Go in
peace – Elisha actually said; ‘such
faith will save you’, we might well add!
Once more we are being taught about gratitude before God; and
the example of Naaman is of the utmost significance, for Naaman did not only
say ‘Thank you’ to Elisha immediately, he also took serious measures to
make sure that henceforth he would remember
and be able to offer acceptable signs of gratitude to the God of
Elisha, the God of Israel, even when he had returned to pagan Syria to continue
his work in the service of Syria’s ruler.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, God is divine and so
good that He wills to share His divine blessedness with us; we … as we know
full well … are human and indeed sinful; consequently, we needs must open up to
Him the best of our human capacities for our renewal and refashioning in Jesus
by His most Holy Spirit: and that must, most surely, include an attentive and
humble mind able to recognize one’s failings before God, and a heart
and will committed to gratefully cherishing the remembrance of God’s resultant
great goodness to us personally and to all those of good will.
