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 PS
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."
A Daily Quote for Lent: Could anyone
refuse to love our God?, by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Fulfill the
commandments out of love. Could anyone refuse to love our God, so abounding in
mercy, so just in all his ways? Could anyone deny love to him who first loved
us despite all our injustice and all our pride? Could anyone refuse to love the
God who so loved us as to send his only Son not only to live among human beings
but also to be put to death for their sake and at their own hands?"
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29,
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 until his ultimate fate on Calvary.
TO LOVE: Pray for Christians around the world who face persecution and death for the sake of the gospel.
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to listen to your voice today.
LEAP YEAR
February 29 crops up every four years, but what is a leap year, and why do we have them? A Leap Year is where an extra day is added to the end of February every four years. It is due to the solar system's disparity with the Gregorian calendar. A complete orbit of the earth around the sun takes exactly 365.2422 days to complete, but the Gregorian calendar uses 365 days. So leap seconds - and leap years - are added as means of keeping our clocks (and calendars) in sync with the Earth and its seasons.
February 29 crops up every four years, but what is a leap year, and why do we have them? A Leap Year is where an extra day is added to the end of February every four years. It is due to the solar system's disparity with the Gregorian calendar. A complete orbit of the earth around the sun takes exactly 365.2422 days to complete, but the Gregorian calendar uses 365 days. So leap seconds - and leap years - are added as means of keeping our clocks (and calendars) in sync with the Earth and its seasons.
Monday 29 February 2016
Mon 29th. 2 Kings 5:1-15. My soul is thirsting for the
living God: when shall I see him face to face?—Ps 41(42):2-3; 42(43):3-4. Luke
4:24-30.
Prophets are never recognised in their hometown.
They say ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. We never
believe that the people we grew up with could possibly be a prophetic voice.
They drank the same water as us, ate the same food, went to the same school but
what was it that drove them to stick their necks out and risk safety and
security to help others?
Our baptismal rite speaks of us as a priestly people
called in a threefold way to be priests, prophets and rulers (sanctifiers,
teachers and leaders). Jesus’ ministry has a special focus on the outcast, the
marginalised and the poor. As followers of Jesus this should be our focus too.
We too must be prophets, speaking up for the voiceless, the powerless, the
little ones. This is not always the popular way and it may well backfire but we
must do it nevertheless. It is our mission and our vocation as people of
faith.
MINUTE
MEDITATIONS
|
Led by the Spirit
|
O great and glorious God and my Lord Jesus, send your Spirit into
our midst that he may enlighten our minds and inflame our hearts, that he may
give us a right faith, a certain hope, and a perfect charity. In this way, we
pray that we may be able to understand the Word of God given to us in the
Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, and that as he dwells in our hearts, he may
bring us closer to you and to all our brothers and sisters in the world today.
Amen.
February
29
St. Oswald
(d. 992)
St. Oswald
(d. 992)
The last acts in the life of today's saint
make for an amazing story. In truth, they merely underscore the holiness he exhibited
throughout his life.
Born into a military family in 10th-century England,
Oswald was a nephew of the archbishop of Canterbury, who raised him and played
a crucial role in his early education. Oswald continued his studies abroad in
France, where he became a Benedictine monk.
Following his appointment as bishop of Worcester, and
later as archbishop of York, he founded monasteries and introduced many
reforms. He supported—and improved—scholarship at the abbeys he established,
inviting leading thinkers in such fields as mathematics and astronomy to share
their learnings.
He was widely known for his sanctity, especially his
love for the poor. The final winter of his life was spent at the cathedral in
Worcester that he so loved. At the start of Lent in February of the year 992,
he resumed his usual practice of washing the feet of 12 poor men each day. On
Leap Year Day, February 29, he died after kissing the feet of the 12th man and
giving a blessing.
The news of Oswald's death brought an outpouring of
grief throughout the city.
LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 4,24-30
Lectio Divina:
Monday, February 29, 2016
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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