THE WORD
FIRST READING: 2 Kgs 5,14-17
Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he 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.” Elisha replied, “As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it.” And despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused. Naaman said: “If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for your servant will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the LORD.”
SECOND READING: 2 Tim 2,8-13
Beloved:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: such is my gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
GOSPEL: Lk 17,11-19
Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. 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?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Protestants would always insist that their church is the true Church founded by Christ. And they would have different kinds of “scripture-based” arguments to support this claim. Catholics on the other hand would point to Peter as the first Pope, hence to a direct and unbroken connection to Christ. Therefore the Catholic Church is the true Church. Bow!
The Samaritans and the Jews had and still have exactly the same argument as Protestants and Catholics have. Each would insist as being the “true Israel” and hence possessing the “purer” form of worship of the One God.
In the Gospel today we hear Jesus healing ten lepers, one of whom, the one who says his “thank you”, is a Samaritan. And at the end of the Gospel Jesus says to this man, “Your faith has healed you”. Faith in whom? Faith in the Jewish Jesus? Or faith in the Jewish Yahweh? Or is it perhaps faith in the Samaritan Yahweh? In the first reading we hear the account of the healing of Naaman, an Aramean general. He is not a Jew and therefore he must have been worshipping other gods before this incident. But he is healed, without being asked for his “baptismal certi cate”, or if “he has been saved” or if he knows “what the name of God is”.
The need to argue and win non-catholics is our problem. That is why the same tired and boring questions and equally tired and boring answers are rehashed over and over and over again. I love Kobe Bryant. In one game, a player from the opposing team was complaining incessantly to the referee. Kobe approached him and said, “Shut up and play”. Maybe we should also say this to ourselves, for we would definitely be doing the world a huge favor if we “shut up” and actually practice what we preach.
God is love. And the readings today show that this love is not tied by or to anyone. St. Paul in the second reading affirms that “the word of God is not imprisoned”, and this Word who is Love is poured out to all good or bad, young or old, “gentile or Jew, woman or man, servant or free”.
God is busy loving…sadly, most of us are busy talking.
- Fr. Dante Barril, SVD | Rome, Italy
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
