March 9, 2026
Monday of the Third Week of
Lent
Lectionary: 237
Reading
1
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
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?
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.
Gospel
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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030926.cfm
Commentary on 2 Kings 5:1-15
The central
character in today’s First Reading is Naaman, an army commander from Syria
under the king of Aram, probably Ben-Hadad II. He was held in high esteem by
his king because of military victories, which the Bible attributes to the power
of Yahweh. In the writer’s view, victory is to be attributed to the God of
Israel, who is seen as the ruler and controller of the fate of all nations, and
not just that of Israel.
Now, Naaman was a
‘leper’. The New Jerusalem Bible calls his condition a
“virulent skin disease” because, whatever it was, it did not seem to exclude
Naaman from coming into close contact with people. In ancient times, real
leprosy was, tragically for the victim, often confused with other chronic skin
diseases.
Although Israel
had concluded a peace treaty with the Aramaeans during the reign of King Ahab,
there were still minor skirmishes on the borders between the two states for
control of a place called Ramoth Gilead. These followed a battle in which King
Ahab had been killed. It was as a result of one of these skirmishes that a
young Israelite girl was taken captive. She would prove the link in bringing
healing to Naaman.
We could well stop
to reflect for a few moments on this young girl. Although a simple slave, she
played a crucial role in the healing and, together with the austere prophet
Elisha, offered a startling contrast to the ostentatious wealth of
Naaman—wealth which had no role to play in his being restored to health.
She knew about the
prophet Elisha, who was living in Samaria and suggested that her master should
go to him for healing. The king, Ben-Hadad, gave his full approval for Naaman
to go to Samaria and see Elisha and promised to write a letter of introduction
to King Joram of Israel. The Syrian king obviously believed that Elisha was
subject to Joram and that the prophet’s services could only be bought with a
generous gift—hence the 10 talents of silver (a huge amount of money), 6,000
shekels of gold and the 10 festal robes which Naaman brought with him. He
thought that God’s gift of healing could only be bought with money.
On the other hand,
King Joram is horrified by this and rends his clothes in despair. His own faith
in God’s healing power was so weak that he thought that Ben-Hadad was simply
looking for a pretext for war by asking the obviously impossible—the cure of a
leper. But when Elisha hears of it, he scolds the king for his failure to
consult his prophet.
Naaman now arrives
in all the glory of someone in his exalted position with horses and chariots.
He will overawe the prophet by his presence, power and show of wealth. He must
then have been somewhat surprised to be told by the prophet what he must do.
And what he had to do was to bathe seven times in the River Jordan. Elisha
clearly indicates that the healing power comes from the power of the God of
Israel, but only if the general does what he is told by the prophet.
The prophet
himself was not strictly speaking a healer. Ritual washings were practiced
among the Eastern religions as a purification rite, and the number seven was
generally known as a symbol of completeness. Naaman was to wash in the muddy
waters of the Jordan River, showing that there was no natural connection
between the washing and the desired healing. Perhaps it was also being
suggested that one needed to pass through the Jordan, as Israel had done (see
Jos 3—4), in order to obtain healing from the God of Israel. Much later, Jesus
would also pass through the same waters of the Jordan and be filled with the
Spirit of his Father.
Naaman finds this
an affront to his dignity. He expected the prophet to come out to him, wave his
hand magically over the afflicted spots and effect an immediate cure. Instead,
he has to do what he is told by someone he regards as a foreign underling. And
what is worse, he is asked to bathe in the Jordan. What was wrong with the
rivers that flowed through Damascus—the Abana and Pharpar? The Abana was called
the ‘Golden River’ by the Greeks and is usually identified with the Barada
River today, which rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows through the
city of Damascus. The Pharpar River flows eastwards from Mount Hermon, just to
the south of Damascus. In fact, the waters of these rivers were hygienically
far superior to the muddy waters of the Jordan. But that was precisely the
point—it was not the water which brought the healing.
Deeply insulted,
Naaman turns round to go home. But his servants plead with him. After all, if
Naaman had been asked to do something difficult, he would have done so. Why not
obey the prophet when he asks something so easy? Naaman puts his pride behind
him, goes to the river seven times and emerges with his skin like that of a
new-born child. He is both physically and spiritually reborn.
However, we need
to be aware that there is a deeper meaning to the story. Naaman, the Gentile
submitting to the command of Yahweh through his prophet, is put forward as a
contrast to a disobedient Israel, which still wavered in its divided allegiance
to Yahweh and to Baal. God’s blessings are only to be found in total submission
to his will and his commands. In today’s Gospel, Jesus will bring up this point
himself, much to the anger of the Jews to whom he was speaking.
The clear lesson
of the story is given in the last sentence when, after being cured, Naaman goes
back in gratitude to Elisha and says:
Now I know that
there is no God in all the earth except in Israel…
A minor lesson for
all of us arises from Naaman’s indignation at being told to bathe seven times
in the river Jordan. Wisdom comes from the slaves in his household who said to
their master:
…if the prophet
had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How
much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?
How often do we
not see God coming into our lives because of our prejudices and blind spots?
It must be
understood from this passage that the true healer is not Elisha, nor the muddy
waters of the Jordan river, but God himself. And the healing is the result, not
of the washing in the river, but of Naaman’s eventual submission and obedience
to God’s spokesman.
It was exactly the
lack of this attitude on the part of the people of Nazareth (spoken of in
today’s Gospel) that prevented Jesus from healing the people of his own town.
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Commentary on Luke 4:24-30
This Gospel, and
the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42), are both linked by the
story told in today’s First Reading about Naaman, a Syrian general, who was
miraculously cured by Elisha the prophet.
The Gospel is the
second part of the scene in the synagogue in Nazareth, where Jesus officially
announces his mission as Messiah, Saviour and Liberator. The first reaction was
one of amazement that Jesus, their townsman, could speak with such power:
All spoke well
of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. (Luke 4:22)
There was
amazement, but no real faith in him. Familiarity had blinded them to his true
identity, and they reject him. For them he is just ‘Joe the carpenter’s boy’.
Jesus says he is
not surprised by this reception:
Truly I tell
you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
He then goes on to
give two examples taken from the lives of two well-known Old Testament
prophets. They are not quite examples of prophets not being received by their
own people, but rather of prophets reaching out to other peoples,
non-believers.
When there was a
great famine among the Israelites, it was a Sidonian widow who was helped by
Elijah. Sidon was the place where Jesus would heal a gentile woman’s daughter.
There were many leprous people in Israel, says Jesus, but Elisha was sent to
cure Naaman the Syrian, another Gentile.
Jesus’ hearers are
incensed by what appear to them arrogant and insulting words. In their minds,
they were not rejecting a prophet, but an impostor. They find his remarks about
Elijah and Elisha highly objectionable.
The references to
Elijah and Elisha help to emphasise Luke’s image of Jesus as a prophet like
those who went before him. They also lay the foundation for the future mission
of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
We too can very
easily fail to recognise the voice of God in certain people who in fact—whether
they are aware of it or not—are bringing a message from him. Like the people of
Nazareth, we can think we know them too well to have to listen to them. We feel
it would be inconceivable that God could speak to us through such people. Fair
warning that this probably happens most of all with people we see every day
during our lives.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/l1032g/
Monday,
March 9, 2026
Season of Lent
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 on 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.
Gospel Reading - Luke 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.
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: 12) 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 release to prisoners, to give back sight to the blind, to
restore liberty to the oppressed. After finishing the reading, He updates 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 to 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?
What is the reason for this
[unexpected] reaction?
Because Jesus quoted the text from Isaiah only to the part
that says, “to proclaim a year of favor 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 social 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. 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 Jewish people and opened itself to
accept the excluded and all humanity.
•
Luke 4: 25-27: Two stories of the Old Testament.
In order to help the community to get beyond 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 Zarephath (1 Kg 17: 7-16). Elisha was sent to take care of
Naaman of Syria (2 Kg 5: 14). The people of Nazareth felt threatened by this.
Paul makes a similar statement with similar results too (Acts 22: 21)
•
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 the people down. On the contrary! The use of these two
biblical passages caused them to become angrier. The community of Nazareth reached
the point of wanting to kill Jesus. And thus, at the moment in which He
presented His plan to accept the excluded, Jesus Himself was excluded! But He
remained calm! The anger of the others did not 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 gentiles had already existed in the time of Jesus. Jesus had the same
difficulty which Luke had with the Hebrew community in his time.
Personal Questions
•
How do I carry on the gift of the Good News in
the world today?
•
Who are the excluded whom we should accept more
warmly in our community?
•
Does taking on poverty, oppression, or blindness
(in all its forms) start on a personal level and spread to my community, or do
I wait for the community to act before taking personal action?
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. (Ps84:2)
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