Readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 2 Kgs 5:14-17
The story of Naaman, a military leader from the kingdom of Aram prefigures the baptismal bath that washes us clean from sin and places the Holy Spirit within us. Here Naaman experiences this conversion of heart in the Jordan, a muddy river (hence the reference to the mountain springs of Damascus) but cleansing to the spirit. Naaman takes two mule loads of dirt from Israel that he might erect an altar on Israelite soil in his home country that he might worship the God of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Psalm 98 is a song of praise and thanksgiving. We see in this selection how God is praised for the strength he lends his people and the salvation he brings to those who are faithful.
Reading II 2 Tm 2:8-13
In the first line of this passage St. Paul reminds St. Timothy that Christ came fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would come from the line of Kind David. The link between this reading and the reading from 2nd Kings is the baptismal idea expressed in the death to sin expressed and the rising with Christ as a new creation. As Paul implies, this is not an easy path and Christians must endure trails. He concludes with the promise that those who remain faithful will receive the reward, those who fall away will not.
Gospel Lk 17:11-19
The story of the Samaritan Leper, found only in St. Luke’s Gospel, reiterates Jesus’ ability to remove sins. Here the Lord cures 10 Lepers, outcasts who are viewed by the community as being under God’s punishment. When only the Samaritan returns to Jesus to thank the Lord for expressing God’s love through healing, Jesus pointedly asks where the Jews who received the same blessing have gone. While the Lord’s response to the praise of the Samaritan; “Your faith has cured you” is heard in other instances (see Luke 7:50; 8:48, 50), the more global message, that Christ came for the world is implicit in the story.
Homily:
Later today a number of infants will be presented here, in the house of God, for Baptism. Their parents and godparents will make promises on behalf of these children. They will promise to raise them in the practice of the faith. They will promise to do their best to keep them safe from the poison of sin to grow in God’s grace so that when they have matured, they may take there places here among us as disciples of Christ, ready to help us take the faith their parents promised to help instill in them into the world.
Once these solemn vows are taken, the Church’s minister will pour water from the baptismal bath upon them, cleansing them from sin and God will create in them a new heart. They will die to the life of sin and be clothed in Christ – becoming a new creation in Him. These gifts are given by Christ who alone can forgive sin, who alone has died so that we might have this great blessing that gives us that first and most important shot of sacramental grace. It opens the doors of heaven and places a path in front of them.
All of the scripture we heard today points to that promise and that path. In the 2nd Book of Kings, Naaman was cleansed in the Jordan and received the gift of conversion. In St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy he speaks explicitly of the death to sin and new birth to innocence in baptism. And in our Gospel, Jesus who alone can free us from sin, the blemish of the soul cures the ten lepers.
Only one of those ten lepers returned to Christ to thank him for the gift. Only one
We all heard the story of the ten lepers that Jesus encountered while on his journey to Jerusalem. After he cured them he told them to go and show themselves to the priests so that they would be allowed to come back and live among the community.
Being afflicted with leprosy in the time of Jesus was seen as a punishment from God. That punishment, it was reasoned, was in response for some sin they had committed. The sins that would cause God to afflict a person with the “rotting disease” must have been terrible in deed. People with these sores that would not heal were outcasts, they were not allowed to have direct contact with anyone in the community until they came to the priest and showed them that the sores had left and their time of atonement was completed.
They depended upon the mercy of others for their subsistence during this time. When people approached them they were required by Hebrew Law to shout out “unclean, unclean” to make sure no one became impure because of them. Their lives in short were a living hell.
When Jesus caused these ten to be cured, he opened the gates of that horrible state and let them return to their families and friends. In response to this tremendous gift, only one came back, a Samaritan, to thank Jesus for what he had done.
In response to this man’s adoration (scripture tells us he fell at the Lord’s feet in gratitude) the Lord told the man; “Your faith has cured you.”
What do you suppose happened to that man after he left the Lord, hearing those words and feeling the cleansing spirit washing over him? There is a story that says he later became one of the followers of Peter, a friend of Jesus. It is said that he could not stop talking about what had happened to him, how, when he heard the words of Jesus of Nazareth, he was made whole again.
He traveled fare and wide and were ever he went he called out especially to those who, like himself, had been cast out, hopeless and dependent upon the charity of others. He gave them hope and he told them a story about a Savior who had given him life. Some of those he spoke with found renewed hope and strength. Some were able to return to their communities, well and whole once more and they too told the story of the “one who came back”. His name is not known, only that he gave thanks to the Lord constantly for his undeserved gift.
It is that gift we celebrate today. We were all once in the place of that leper; our souls blemished by sin, until the Lord invited us to be washed clean in Baptism. We all experienced the healing gift of the Holy Spirit, although most of us were too young to remember.
Like “the one who came back”, we are called to reach out to others as well. It is part of our call. He who made us whole asks us to extend his invitation to others though our words and actions.
Perhaps some might ask how, how can we be like “the one who came back”? First, we fill ourselves up with the grace God provides in the sacraments. We were made new in Baptism but that was just the start. We must nourish ourselves with the other sacramental Graces, through the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Then, because we are strengthened by the Lord we go into the world. We go, knowing that the world will not love the message we bring. Our faith will show. We don’t even need words most of the time. When we offer help to people in need, when we show compassion to those who are troubled, when we show forgiveness to those who have wronged us, the will know.
Like it was for “the one who came back”, some will receive that message and take hope and some will even find that compassion in themselves and accept the invitation to come home.
The story of “the one who came back” should stay with us. He represents the thankfulness we show in our worship today. Like him, let us thank the Lord for healing us, making us whole, and bringing us to his table.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used is Jesus Heals the Ten Lepers, Caspar Luken, 1700
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 2 Kgs 5:14-17
The story of Naaman, a military leader from the kingdom of Aram prefigures the baptismal bath that washes us clean from sin and places the Holy Spirit within us. Here Naaman experiences this conversion of heart in the Jordan, a muddy river (hence the reference to the mountain springs of Damascus) but cleansing to the spirit. Naaman takes two mule loads of dirt from Israel that he might erect an altar on Israelite soil in his home country that he might worship the God of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Psalm 98 is a song of praise and thanksgiving. We see in this selection how God is praised for the strength he lends his people and the salvation he brings to those who are faithful.
Reading II 2 Tm 2:8-13
In the first line of this passage St. Paul reminds St. Timothy that Christ came fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would come from the line of Kind David. The link between this reading and the reading from 2nd Kings is the baptismal idea expressed in the death to sin expressed and the rising with Christ as a new creation. As Paul implies, this is not an easy path and Christians must endure trails. He concludes with the promise that those who remain faithful will receive the reward, those who fall away will not.
Gospel Lk 17:11-19
The story of the Samaritan Leper, found only in St. Luke’s Gospel, reiterates Jesus’ ability to remove sins. Here the Lord cures 10 Lepers, outcasts who are viewed by the community as being under God’s punishment. When only the Samaritan returns to Jesus to thank the Lord for expressing God’s love through healing, Jesus pointedly asks where the Jews who received the same blessing have gone. While the Lord’s response to the praise of the Samaritan; “Your faith has cured you” is heard in other instances (see Luke 7:50; 8:48, 50), the more global message, that Christ came for the world is implicit in the story.
Homily:
Later today a number of infants will be presented here, in the house of God, for Baptism. Their parents and godparents will make promises on behalf of these children. They will promise to raise them in the practice of the faith. They will promise to do their best to keep them safe from the poison of sin to grow in God’s grace so that when they have matured, they may take there places here among us as disciples of Christ, ready to help us take the faith their parents promised to help instill in them into the world.
Once these solemn vows are taken, the Church’s minister will pour water from the baptismal bath upon them, cleansing them from sin and God will create in them a new heart. They will die to the life of sin and be clothed in Christ – becoming a new creation in Him. These gifts are given by Christ who alone can forgive sin, who alone has died so that we might have this great blessing that gives us that first and most important shot of sacramental grace. It opens the doors of heaven and places a path in front of them.
All of the scripture we heard today points to that promise and that path. In the 2nd Book of Kings, Naaman was cleansed in the Jordan and received the gift of conversion. In St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy he speaks explicitly of the death to sin and new birth to innocence in baptism. And in our Gospel, Jesus who alone can free us from sin, the blemish of the soul cures the ten lepers.
Only one of those ten lepers returned to Christ to thank him for the gift. Only one
We all heard the story of the ten lepers that Jesus encountered while on his journey to Jerusalem. After he cured them he told them to go and show themselves to the priests so that they would be allowed to come back and live among the community.
Being afflicted with leprosy in the time of Jesus was seen as a punishment from God. That punishment, it was reasoned, was in response for some sin they had committed. The sins that would cause God to afflict a person with the “rotting disease” must have been terrible in deed. People with these sores that would not heal were outcasts, they were not allowed to have direct contact with anyone in the community until they came to the priest and showed them that the sores had left and their time of atonement was completed.
They depended upon the mercy of others for their subsistence during this time. When people approached them they were required by Hebrew Law to shout out “unclean, unclean” to make sure no one became impure because of them. Their lives in short were a living hell.
When Jesus caused these ten to be cured, he opened the gates of that horrible state and let them return to their families and friends. In response to this tremendous gift, only one came back, a Samaritan, to thank Jesus for what he had done.
In response to this man’s adoration (scripture tells us he fell at the Lord’s feet in gratitude) the Lord told the man; “Your faith has cured you.”
What do you suppose happened to that man after he left the Lord, hearing those words and feeling the cleansing spirit washing over him? There is a story that says he later became one of the followers of Peter, a friend of Jesus. It is said that he could not stop talking about what had happened to him, how, when he heard the words of Jesus of Nazareth, he was made whole again.
He traveled fare and wide and were ever he went he called out especially to those who, like himself, had been cast out, hopeless and dependent upon the charity of others. He gave them hope and he told them a story about a Savior who had given him life. Some of those he spoke with found renewed hope and strength. Some were able to return to their communities, well and whole once more and they too told the story of the “one who came back”. His name is not known, only that he gave thanks to the Lord constantly for his undeserved gift.
It is that gift we celebrate today. We were all once in the place of that leper; our souls blemished by sin, until the Lord invited us to be washed clean in Baptism. We all experienced the healing gift of the Holy Spirit, although most of us were too young to remember.
Like “the one who came back”, we are called to reach out to others as well. It is part of our call. He who made us whole asks us to extend his invitation to others though our words and actions.
Perhaps some might ask how, how can we be like “the one who came back”? First, we fill ourselves up with the grace God provides in the sacraments. We were made new in Baptism but that was just the start. We must nourish ourselves with the other sacramental Graces, through the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Then, because we are strengthened by the Lord we go into the world. We go, knowing that the world will not love the message we bring. Our faith will show. We don’t even need words most of the time. When we offer help to people in need, when we show compassion to those who are troubled, when we show forgiveness to those who have wronged us, the will know.
Like it was for “the one who came back”, some will receive that message and take hope and some will even find that compassion in themselves and accept the invitation to come home.
The story of “the one who came back” should stay with us. He represents the thankfulness we show in our worship today. Like him, let us thank the Lord for healing us, making us whole, and bringing us to his table.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used is Jesus Heals the Ten Lepers, Caspar Luken, 1700
No comments:
Post a Comment