MARCH 12, 2012

Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 237

Reading 1 2 Kgs 5:1-15ab

Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram,
was highly esteemed and respected by his master,
for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram.
But valiant as he was, the man was a leper.
Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel
a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman's wife.
"If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,"
she said to her mistress, "he would cure him of his leprosy."
Naaman went and told his lord
just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said.
"Go," said the king of Aram.
"I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."
So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents,
six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments.
To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read:
"With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you,
that you may cure him of his leprosy."

When he read the letter,
the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed:
"Am I a god with power over life and death,
that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy?
Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!"
When Elisha, the man of God,
heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments,
he sent word to the king:
"Why have you torn your garments?
Let him come to me and find out
that there is a prophet in Israel."

Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.
The prophet sent him the message:
"Go and wash seven times in the Jordan,
and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean."
But Naaman went away angry, saying,
"I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?"
With this, he turned about in anger and left.

But his servants came up and reasoned with him.
"My father," they said,
"if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said."
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at 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."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4

R. (see 42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?

Gospel Lk 4:24-30

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
"Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

Meditation:  Jesus' word of judgment

Do you want to be made clean and whole, free from sin, pride, and a willful heart that refuses God's grace and instruction? God makes us a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), but sinful pride, indifference, and unbelief can block that transformation from taking full effect in us. God repeatedly sent his prophets to the chosen people of Israel to shake from them their indifference and unbelief, but their ears grew dull of hearing. They forgot to ask for healing and pardon. We all stand in need of God's grace and help every day and every moment of our lives. Scripture tells us that "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23). God gives grace to the humble who seek him with sincerity, with expectant faith, and with a repentant heart that wants to be made whole and clean again. When Naaman, a non-Jew went to Jerusalem to seek a cure for his leprosy, the prophet Elisha instructed him to bathe seven times in the Jordan river. He humbly followed the prophet's instructions and was immediately restored in body and spirit.

When Jesus proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom to his own people, he did not hesitate to confront them with their sin of indifference and unbelief. He startled his listeners in the synagogue at Nazareth with a seeming rebuke that no prophet or servant of God can receive honor among his own people. He then angered them when he complimented the Gentiles who seemed to have shown more faith in God than the "chosen ones" of Israel. The Jews regarded the unbelieving Gentiles as "fuel for the fires of hell." Jesus' praise for "outsiders" offended the hears of his own people  because they were blind-sighted to God's mercy and plan of redemption for all nations. The word of warning and judgment spoken by Jesus was met with hostility by his own people. They forcibly threw him out of the town and would have done him harm had he not stopped them

The Lord Jesus offers healing and pardon to all who humbly ask for his mercy and help. He will set us free from every sinful habit and every harmful way of relating to our neighbor, if we allow him to cleanse and heal us. If we want to walk in freedom and grow in love and holiness, then we must humbly renounce our sinful ways and submit to Christ's instruction and healing for our lives. Scripture tells us that the Lord disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Do you want the Lord Jesus to set you free from every sinful pattern and to make you whole and well again? Ask him to show you the way to walk in his love and truth.

"Lord Jesus, teach me to love your ways that I may be quick to renounce sin and wilfulness in my life. Make me whole and clean again that I may I delight to do your will."

.  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts—Ps 94(95):1-2, 6-9

If you only knew what God is offering.
In 1981, while visiting the Holy Land, Mum and I were taken to see Jacob’s Well. There was ongoing tension in nearby Nablus. It was powerful to stand in this ancient holy place, where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. The historical conflict between Jews and Samaritans was mirrored in that between Israel and Palestine, and the subsequent plight of Palestinian refugees in the camps.

Jesus broke with prejudice and custom by sitting down to talk with the Samaritan woman. The time of her visit to the well seemed to indicate her outcast status. Jesus simply treated her as a person, with respect and care. Such was the rapport he established that he could challenge her lifestyle, while inviting her onto a spiritual journey.

Jesus, let me be open to learn from all people.

MINUTE MEDITATIONS

Blessed are the Poor        

Poverty and humility allow us to contemplate the goodness of God in creation because they make us free to see things for what they are, unique, unrepeatable loved-into-being gifts of God.

—    from Compassion

March 12
St. Maximilian
(d. 295)

We have an early, precious, almost unembellished account of the martyrdom of St. Maximilian in modern-day Algeria.

Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, "I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian."
Dion replied: "You must serve or die."
Maximilian: "I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian."
Dion: "There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius."
Maximilian: "That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve."
Dion: "But what harm do soldiers do?"
Maximilian: "You know well enough."
Dion: "If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army."
Maximilian: "I shall not die. If I go from this earth, my soul will live with Christ my Lord."
Maximilian was 21 years old when he gladly offered his life to God. His father went home from the execution site joyful, thanking God that he had been able to offer heaven such a gift.

March 12
Blessed Angela Salawa
(1881-1922)

Angela served Christ and Christ’s little ones with all her strength.

Born in Siepraw, near Kraków, Poland, she was the 11th child of Bartlomiej and Ewa Salawa. In 1897, she moved to Kraków where her older sister Therese lived. Angela immediately began to gather together and instruct young women domestic workers. During World War I, she helped prisoners of war without regard for their nationality or religion. The writings of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross were a great comfort to her.
Angela gave great service in caring for soldiers wounded in World War I. After 1918 her health did not permit her to exercise her customary apostolate. Addressing herself to Christ, she wrote in her diary, "I want you to be adored as much as you were destroyed." In another place, she wrote, "Lord, I live by your will. I shall die when you desire; save me because you can."
At her 1991 beatification in Kraków, Pope John Paul II said: "It is in this city that she worked, that she suffered and that her holiness came to maturity. While connected to the spirituality of St. Francis, she showed an extraordinary responsiveness to the action of the Holy Spirit" (L'Osservatore Romano, volume 34, number 4, 1991).

Comment:

Humility should never be mistaken for lack of conviction, insight or energy. Angela brought the Good News and material assistance to some of Christ’s "least ones." Her self-sacrifice inspired others to do the same.

Quote:

Henri de Lubac, S.J., wrote: "The best Christians and the most vital are by no means to be found either inevitably or even generally among the wise or the clever, the intelligentsia or the politically-minded, or those of social consequence. And consequently what they say does not make the headlines; what they do does not come to the public eye. Their lives are hidden from the eyes of the world, and if they do come to some degree of notoriety, that is usually late in the day, and exceptional, and always attended by the risk of distortion" (The Splendor of the Church, p. 187).

Blessed JOSEPH TSHANG-TA-PONG

Feastday: March 12
Died: 1815

Martyr of China, a catechist put to death for the faith. He wasbeatified in 1909.