Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 237
Lectionary: 237
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.”
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 PsalmPS 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?
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?
Verse Before The GospelSEE PSALM 130:5, 7
I hope in the LORD,
I trust in his word;
with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.
with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.
GospelLK 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.
“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' power to heal and cleanse
Do you believe that God wants to act with power in your life
today? Power to set you free from sin and hurtful desires, fear and oppression.
Throughout the Scriptures we see God performing mighty acts to save his people
from death and destruction - from Noah's ark that spared his family from the flood
of wickedness that had spread across the land to Moses and the Israelites who
crossed through the parting waters of the Red Sea as they fled the armies of
Pharoah their slave Master and oppressor.
Throughout the Gospel accounts Jesus praised individuals who put
their faith in God as they remembered the great and wonderful deeds he had
performed time and again. Jesus even praised outsiders - non-Jews and pagans
from other lands who had heard about the mighty deeds of the God of Israel. One
example Jesus mentioned was Naaman the pagan army commander from Syria who was
afflicted with leprosy - a debilitating skin disease that slowly ate away the
flesh (2 Kings 5:1-15). Naaman's slave-girl was a young Jewish woman who had
faith in God and compassion for Naaman her master. She urged him to seek
healing from Elisha, the great prophet of Israel.When Naaman went to the land
of Israel to seek a cure for his leprosy, the prophet Elisha instructed him to
bathe seven times in the Jordan river. Namaan was indignant at first, but then
repented and followed the prophet's instructions. In doing so he was
immediately restored in body and spirit.
Healing the leprosy of soul and body
What is the significance of Naaman's healing for us? Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD), an early Christian teacher from Edessa, tells us that Naaman's miraculous healing at the River Jordan, prefigures the mystery of the healing which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord Jesus through the regenerating waters of baptism and renewal in the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
What is the significance of Naaman's healing for us? Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD), an early Christian teacher from Edessa, tells us that Naaman's miraculous healing at the River Jordan, prefigures the mystery of the healing which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord Jesus through the regenerating waters of baptism and renewal in the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
"Therefore Naaman was sent to the Jordan as to the remedy
capable to heal a human being. Indeed, sin is the leprosy of the soul, which is
not perceived by the senses, but intelligence has the proof of it, and human
nature must be delivered from this disease by Christ's power which is hidden in
baptism. It was necessary that Naaman, in order to be purified from two
diseases, that of the soul and that of the body, might represent in his own
person the purification of all the nations through the bath of regeneration,
whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of
baptism." (commentary ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5.10-1)
Jesus told Nicodemus, "unless one is born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). The Lord
Jesus wants to renew in each one of us the gift of faith and the regenerating
power of baptism and the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) which cleanses us of the
leprosy of sin and makes us "newborn" sons and daughters of God.
Confronting the sin of indifference and unbelief
When Jesus first proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom to his own townspeople at Nazareth (Luke 4:23-27), 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 could receive honor among his own people. He then angered them when he complimented Gentiles who had shown more faith in God than the "chosen ones" of Israel. Some who despised the Gentiles (non-Jews) even spoke of them as "fuel for the fires of hell." Jesus' praise for "outsiders" offended the ears of his own people because they were blind-sighted to God's merciful plan of redemption for all the nations. The word of rebuke spoken by Jesus was met with indignation and hostility. The Nazarenes forcibly threw him out of their town and would have done him physical harm had he not stopped them.
When Jesus first proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom to his own townspeople at Nazareth (Luke 4:23-27), 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 could receive honor among his own people. He then angered them when he complimented Gentiles who had shown more faith in God than the "chosen ones" of Israel. Some who despised the Gentiles (non-Jews) even spoke of them as "fuel for the fires of hell." Jesus' praise for "outsiders" offended the ears of his own people because they were blind-sighted to God's merciful plan of redemption for all the nations. The word of rebuke spoken by Jesus was met with indignation and hostility. The Nazarenes forcibly threw him out of their town and would have done him physical harm had he not stopped them.
We all stand in need of God's grace and merciful 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 expectant faith and with a repentant heart that wants to be made whole
and clean again.
The Lord Jesus 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 discipline in 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 and make you whole again? Ask him to
show you the way to walk in his healing 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 delight to do your will."
MONDAY, MARCH 9, LUKE 4:24-30
Lenten Weekday
(2 Kings 5:1-15b; Psalm 42)
Lenten Weekday
(2 Kings 5:1-15b; Psalm 42)
KEY VERSE: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place" (v 24).
TO KNOW: The people of Nazareth were amazed by Jesus' teaching, but they were skeptical as to where he got his authority. If he performed miracles elsewhere, why had he not worked any in his own hometown? Jesus said that prophets were never accepted by their own people. He compared his ministry to the prophets Elijah and Elisha who were rejected by their own, yet brought healing and hope to the Gentiles (1 Kgs 17; 2 Kgs 5). The people were angered by Jesus' words. Was he saying that the Gentiles were more favored by God than they were? They were certain that they were God's people and believed that the Gentiles were nothing but fuel for the fires of hell. Outraged, they dragged Jesus from the synagogue and attempted to throw him over a cliff. Miraculously, he eluded them. This incident prefigured the persecution that Jesus continually faced. He would find no escape from his ultimate fate on Calvary.
TO LOVE: Lord Jesus, help me to listen to your voice today.
TO SERVE: Pray for Christians around the world who face persecution and death for the sake of the gospel.
Optional Memorial of Frances of Rome,
religious
Frances was an aristocrat by birth, the
mother of three, a widow and the Foundress of the Oblates of the Tor de'
Specchi (Collatines). She spent her life and fortune, both as laywoman and
religious, in the service of the sick and the poor, including the founding of
the first home in Rome for abandoned children. She dictated 97 visions, in
which she saw many of the pains of Hell. On her feast day priests bless cars
due to her patronage of cars and drivers. Although Frances never drove, legend
says that when she went abroad at night, her guardian angel went before her
lighting the road with a lantern, keeping her safe in her travels.
Monday 9 March 2015
St Frances of Rome.
Exodus 17:1-7. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts—Ps 94(95):1-2, 6-9. John 4:5-42.
Exodus 17:1-7. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts—Ps 94(95):1-2, 6-9. John 4:5-42.
Jesus is never one to shy
away from a challenging situation.
He speaks truth even when
people don’t want to hear it—and even threaten to kill him. It’s never easy to
hear someone tell us that how we’ve always seen the world isn’t quite right. We
don’t like to change our world view and we often dismiss people we don’t agree
with.
The Jewish people believed
that they were the chosen people—and they were. Where Jesus challenged,
however, was that God also wanted to be the God of others. Jesus reminds them
that God’s love and healing is for people of all backgrounds. God is inclusive,
and, of course, the appropriate response to what God does for any of us is
praise and thanks.
MINUTE MEDITATIONS
|
Most Forgotten
|
The Holy Spirit may be the most forgotten member of the Trinity,
but He is the ever-present member. The Spirit is the bond uniting us with the
Father and the Son, an always accessible Gift who longs to fill us with the
love of the Trinity.
March
9
St. Frances of Rome
(1384-1440)
St. Frances of Rome
(1384-1440)
Frances's life combines aspects of secular and religious life. A
devoted and loving wife, she longed for a lifestyle of prayer and service, so
she organized a group of women to minister to the needs of Rome's poor.
Born of
wealthy parents, Frances found herself attracted to the religious life during
her youth. But her parents objected and a young nobleman was selected to be her
husband.
As she
became acquainted with her new relatives, Frances soon discovered that the wife
of her husband’s brother also wished to live a life of service and prayer. So
the two, Frances and Vannozza, set out together—with their husbands’
blessings—to help the poor.
Frances
fell ill for a time, but this apparently only deepened her commitment to the
suffering people she met. The years passed, and Frances gave birth to two sons
and a daughter. With the new responsibilities of family life, the young mother
turned her attention more to the needs of her own household.
The
family flourished under Frances’s care, but within a few years a great plague
began to sweep across Italy. It struck Rome with devastating cruelty and left
Frances’s second son dead. In an effort to help alleviate some of the
suffering, Frances used all her money and sold her possessions to buy whatever
the sick might possibly need. When all the resources had been exhausted,
Frances and Vannozza went door to door begging. Later, Frances’s daughter died,
and the saint opened a section of her house as a hospital.
Frances
became more and more convinced that this way of life was so necessary for the
world, and it was not long before she requested and was given permission to
found a society of women bound by no vows. They simply offered themselves to
God and to the service of the poor. Once the society was established, Frances
chose not to live at the community residence, but rather at home with her
husband. She did this for seven years, until her husband passed away, and then
came to live the remainder of her life with the society—serving the poorest of
the poor.
Comment:
Looking at the exemplary life of fidelity to God and devotion to her fellow human beings which Frances of Rome was blessed to lead, one cannot help but be reminded of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (September 5), who loved Jesus Christ in prayer and also in the poor. The life of Frances of Rome calls each of us not only to look deeply for God in prayer, but also to carry our devotion to Jesus living in the suffering of our world. Frances shows us that this life need not be restricted to those bound by vows.
Looking at the exemplary life of fidelity to God and devotion to her fellow human beings which Frances of Rome was blessed to lead, one cannot help but be reminded of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (September 5), who loved Jesus Christ in prayer and also in the poor. The life of Frances of Rome calls each of us not only to look deeply for God in prayer, but also to carry our devotion to Jesus living in the suffering of our world. Frances shows us that this life need not be restricted to those bound by vows.
Quote:
Malcolm Muggeridge's book Something Beautiful for God contains this quote from Mother Teresa about each sister in her community: “Let Christ radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the poor seeing her be drawn to Christ and invite him to enter their homes and lives.” Says Frances of Rome: “It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints).
Malcolm Muggeridge's book Something Beautiful for God contains this quote from Mother Teresa about each sister in her community: “Let Christ radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the poor seeing her be drawn to Christ and invite him to enter their homes and lives.” Says Frances of Rome: “It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints).
Patron Saint of:
Motorists
Widows
Motorists
Widows
LECTIO DIVINA:
LUKE 4,24-30
Lectio:
Monday, March 9, 2015
Lent Time
1)
OPENING PRAYER
Just and holy God,
our loving Father,
you offered us your hand in friendship
and you sent us your Son Jesus
to go with us the road
of obedience and loyalty.God, we often hurt this friendship,
we act as if we were not your sons and daughters.
See the look of shame on our faces.
Forgive us, for we count on you.
Accept our thanks
for continuing to take us as we are
and loving us notwithstanding our sins.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
our loving Father,
you offered us your hand in friendship
and you sent us your Son Jesus
to go with us the road
of obedience and loyalty.God, we often hurt this friendship,
we act as if we were not your sons and daughters.
See the look of shame on our faces.
Forgive us, for we count on you.
Accept our thanks
for continuing to take us as we are
and loving us notwithstanding our sins.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
2)
GOSPEL READING - LUKE 4, 24-30
And Jesus went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever
accepted in his own country.
'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's
day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great
famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these:
he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia. And in the prophet
Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel,
but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.'
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They
sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to
the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the
cliff, but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.
3)
REFLECTION
• Today’s Gospel (Lk 4, 24-30) forms part of a larger part (Lk
4, 14-32) Jesus had presented his program in the Synagogue of Nazareth, using a
text from Isaiah which spoke about the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the
oppressed (Is 61, 1-2) and which mirrored the situation of the people of
Galilee at the time of Jesus. In the name of God, Jesus takes a stand and defines
his mission: to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberation to
prisoners, to give back their sight to the blind, to restore liberty to the
oppressed. After finishing the reading, he updated the text and says: “Today
this text is being fulfilled even while you are listening. !” (Lk 4, 21). All
those present were astonished (Lk 4, 16, 22b). But immediately after there was
a reaction of discredit. The people in the Synagogue were scandalized and did
not want to know anything about Jesus. They said: “Is he not the son of
Joseph?” (Lk 4, 22b). Why were they scandalized? Which is the reason for this
unexpected reaction?
• Because Jesus quoted the text of Isaiah only to the part that
says: “to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord”, and he omits the end of the
sentence which says: “to proclaim a day of vengeance for our God” (Is 61, 2).
The people of Nazareth remained surprised because Jesus omitted the phrase on
vengeance. They wanted the Good News of the liberation of the oppressed to be
an action of vengeance on the part of God against the oppressors. In this case
the coming of the Kingdom would be only a superficial change, and not a change
or conversion of the system. Jesus does not accept this way of thinking. His
experience of God the Father helps him to understand better the significance of
the prophecies. He takes away the vengeance. The people of Nazareth do not
accept that proposal and the authority of Jesus begins to diminish: “Is he not
Joseph’s son?”
• Luke 4, 24: No prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
The people of Nazareth was jealous because of the miracles which Jesus had
worked in Capernaum, because he had not worked them in Nazareth. Jesus answers:
“No prophet is ever accepted in his own country!” In fact, they did not accept
the new image of God which Jesus communicated to them through this new and
freer interpretation of Isaiah. The message of the God of Jesus went beyond the
limits of the race of the Jews and opened itself to accept the excluded and the
whole humanity.
• Luke 4, 25-27: Two stories of the Old Testament. In order to
help the community to overcome the scandal and to understand the universality
of God, Jesus uses two well known stories of the Old Testament: one of Elijah
and the other one of Elisha. Through these stories he criticized the people of
Nazareth who were so closed up in themselves. Elijah was sent to the foreign
widow of Zarephah (1 Kg 17, 7-16). Elisha was sent to take care of the
foreigner of Syria (2 Kg 5, 14).
• Luke 4, 28-30: They intended to throw him off the cliff, but
he passed straight through the crowd and walked away. What Jesus said did not
calm down the people. On the contrary! The use of these two passages of the
Bible also caused them to get more angry. The community of Nazareth reached the
point of wanting to kill Jesus. And thus, at the moment in which he presented
his project to accept the excluded, Jesus himself was excluded! But he remained
calm! The anger of the others did not succeed to make him change his mind. In
this way, Luke indicates that it is difficult to overcome the mentality of
privilege which is closed up in itself. And he showed that the polemic attitude
of the Pagans already existed in the time of Jesus. Jesus had the same
difficulty which the Hebrew community had in the time of Luke.
4)
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
• Is Jesus’ program also my program, our program? Is my attitude
that of Jesus or that of the people of Nazareth?
• Who are those excluded whom we should accept better in our
community?
5)
CONCLUDING PRAYER
My whole being yearns
and pines for Yahweh's courts,
My heart and my body cry out
for joy to the living God. (Ps 84,2)
and pines for Yahweh's courts,
My heart and my body cry out
for joy to the living God. (Ps 84,2)
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