Homily for the
28th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Oct. 9, 2022
2 Kings 5: 14-17
Luke 17: 11-19
Our Lady of the Assumption,
Bronx
St. Francis Xavier,
Bronx
“One of [the lepers], realizing he had
been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice” (Luke 17: 15).
2 of the readings today tell stories about lepers, about God’s power to heal, and about gratitude.
In the Old Testament reading, the
prophet Elisha instructs a Syrian general suffering from some kind of skin
disease—perhaps not true leprosy, but certainly a troublesome affliction to
him, his family, and his master the king of Syria.
In the gospel reading, Jesus heals 10
true lepers, one of whom returns to praise God and thank Jesus.
In Elisha’s time, the 9th c. B.C., the
Syrians were enemies of Israel (as they still are today). That didn’t prevent Naaman the general from
coming to Israel to seek healing after hearing that there was a prophet of God
in Israel. When he obeyed Elisha’s
instruction to bathe 7 times in the Jordan River, he was cured. He went out of his way to return to Elisha to
acknowledge what the God of Israel had done for him and to offer a gift to the
prophet, which the prophet refused. Then
Naaman asked for 2 loads of Israelite earth to take back to Damascus with him
so that he might worship the God of Israel.
The ancients linked particular gods to particular territory; only Israel
regarded their God, personally named YHWH (usually rendered in our English
translations as LORD), as Creator and Lord of the entire universe. So Naaman thought he needed a chunk of
Israelite soil to remain in touch with God.
From our perspective that may be faulty reasoning. His desire gratefully to worship only the God
of Israel, however, is praiseworthy.
When he speaks with the 10 lepers,
Jesus tells them to go to the priests, as the Law of Moses commanded, to be
certified as clean of disease so that they might return to the community of
Israel and to their families. On their
way they were cured; it was an act of faith on their part to obey Jesus and set
out before they were healed.
We’re not told whether they all went to
the priests; presumably so. We’re not
told whether the one who returned to Jesus came directly back to Jesus or went
1st to the priests, as Jesus directed.
We’re not told that the 9 who didn’t come back to Jesus were ungrateful. We are told that this one—and a Samaritan, at
that, another long-time enemy of the Jews—was explicitly grateful to God and to
Jesus, and that Jesus appreciated that and was disappointed that the other 9
didn’t come back. Those 9 didn’t hear
the consoling words of Jesus that their faith had saved them—maybe a deeper
salvation than merely a cure of leprosy.
The power of God cleansed both Naaman
and the 10 lepers. God acted thru his
designated agents, Elisha and Jesus.
Sometimes we, too, are God’s agents for healing people—not miraculously
but in ordinary ways. That could mean
with medical attention or nursing care for a sick child, parent, or other
relative, or a stranger who needs CPR.
It could mean comforting someone with a broken heart or broken
dreams. It could means offering time and
attention to a child, a teen, a shut-in, or an elder relative. Thru the Holy Spirit whom God has given to us
in Baptism and Confirmation, we’re empowered to heal in a spiritual sense
But the more important lesson of the 2
readings is gratitude. Neither Naaman
nor the healed Samaritan was content to say, “Well, that was nice.” They acted to voice their thanks to God. That’s what we do when we come to Mass. Eucharist means “thanksgiving,” and in fact the
verb in Luke’s Greek text (v. 16) for the cured leper’s thanking Jesus is
ευχαριστων, “eucharist.” At Eucharist we
give thanks to God thru our Lord Jesus Christ for healing us: for healing our spiritual illnesses by
forgiving our sins; for giving us his own living Body and Blood; for healing
the ultimate physical illness of death by promising us a share in his
resurrection. As St. Paul says this
morning, “If we have died with them, we shall also live with him” (2 Tim 2:11).
Polls tell us that no more than 25% of
people who say they’re Catholic come to Mass regularly. Those 25% are like the one leper who returned
to Jesus to thank him. 25% is better
than the 10% of the healed lepers to came back to Jesus, of course. But don’t you think Jesus may be wondering
where are the other 75% who could have their sins forgiven, receive his Body
and Blood, be given Eucharistic power to live good lives on Monday and the rest
of the week, and be gifted with eternal life?
No matter what life throws at us, and
no matter what faults we commit in our human weakness and our moral
foolishness, we have a lot to be thankful to God for. Think on that now and then, and bring your
gratitude to our Father in your daily prayer and especially at your weekly Eucharist. As the faith of the healed leper saved him,
so will it save you and me.
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