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2010년 10월 10일 연중 제28주일
제1독서
열왕기 하 .5,14-17
그 무렵 시리아 사람 14 나아만은 하느님의 사람 엘리사가 일러 준 대로, 요르단 강에 내려가서 일곱 번 몸을 담갔다. 그러자 나병 환자인 그는 어린아이 살처럼 새살이 돋아 깨끗해졌다.
15나아만은 수행원을 모두 거느리고 하느님의 사람에게로 되돌아가, 그 앞에 서서 말하였다. “이제 저는 알았습니다. 온 세상에서 이스라엘 밖에는 하느님께서 계시지 않습니다. 이 종이 드리는 선물을 부디 받아 주십시오.”
16그러나 엘리사는 “내가 모시는 주님께서 살아 계시는 한, 결코 선물을 받을 수 없습니다.” 하고 거절하였다. 그래도 나아만이 그것을 받아 달라고 거듭 청하였지만, 엘리사는 거절하였다.
17그러자 나아만은 이렇게 말하였다. “그러시다면, 나귀 두 마리에 실을 만큼의 흙을 이 종에게 주십시오. 이 종은 이제부터 주님 말고는 다른 어떤 신에게도 번제물이나 희생 제물을 드리지 않을 것입니다.”
제2독서
티모테오 2서.2,8-13
사랑하는 그대여, 8 예수 그리스도를 기억하십시오. 그분께서는 다윗의 후손으로, 죽은 이들 가운데에서 되살아나셨습니다. 이것이 나의 복음입니다. 9 이 복음을 위하여 나는 죄인처럼 감옥에 갇히는 고통까지 겪고 있습니다. 그러나 하느님의 말씀은 감옥에 갇혀 있지 않습니다.
10그러므로 나는 선택된 이들을 위하여 이 모든 것을 견디어 냅니다. 그들도 그리스도 예수님 안에서 받는 구원을 영원한 영광과 함께 얻게 하려는 것입니다.
11이 말은 확실합니다. 우리가 그분과 함께 죽었으면, 그분과 함께 살 것이고, 12 우리가 견디어 내면, 그분과 함께 다스릴 것이며, 우리가 그분을 모른다고 하면, 그분도 우리를 모른다고 하실 것입니다. 13 우리는 성실하지 못해도 그분께서는 언제나 성실하시니, 그러한 당신 자신을 부정하실 수 없기 때문입니다.
복음
루카.17,11-19
11예수님께서 예루살렘으로 가시는 길에 사마리아와 갈릴래아 사이를 지나가시게 되었다. 12 그분께서 어떤 마을에 들어가시는데, 나병 환자 열 사람이 그분께 마주 왔다. 그들은 멀찍이 서서 13 소리를 높여 말하였다. “예수님, 스승님! 저희에게 자비를 베풀어 주십시오.”
14예수님께서는 그들을 보시고, “가서 사제들에게 너희 몸을 보여라.” 하고 이르셨다. 그들이 가는 동안에 몸이 깨끗해졌다.
15그들 가운데 한 사람은 병이 나은 것을 보고 큰 소리로 하느님을 찬양하며 돌아와, 16 예수님의 발 앞에 엎드려 감사를 드렸다. 그는 사마리아 사람이었다.
17그러자 예수님께서 말씀하셨다. “열 사람이 깨끗해지지 않았느냐? 그런데 아홉은 어디에 있느냐? 18 이 외국인 말고는 아무도 하느님께 영광을 드리러 돌아오지 않았단 말이냐?” 19 이어서 그에게 이르셨다. “일어나 가거라. 네 믿음이 너를 구원하였다.”
October 10, 2010
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1
Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of Elisha, the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean of his leprosy.
Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said,
"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel.
Please accept a gift from your servant."
Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it;"
and despite Naaman's urging, he still refused.
Naaman said: "If you will not accept,
please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth,
for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice
to any other god except to the LORD."
Responsorial Psalm
R. (cf. 2b) The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
his right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands:
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Reading 2
Beloved:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David:
such is my gospel, for which I am suffering,
even to the point of chains, like a criminal.
But the word of God is not chained.
Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen,
so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus,
together with eternal glory.
This saying is trustworthy:
If we have died with him
we shall also live with him;
if we persevere
we shall also reign with him.
But if we deny him
he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful
he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny himself.
Gospel
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."
http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
PRE-PRAYERING
We are invited to pray with and reflect upon several important Christian gifts in today’s readings. We pray for the grace of true humility which frees us to tell ourselves and others our true condition. Humility is honesty and such truthfulness will eventually bring about a healing somewhere in our lives.
We pray also for the faith that what has been hurtful in our pasts do not have to accompany us into our futures. Physical healing may take time and often those injuries or debilitations remain no matter how intensely we pray. The interior hurts, especially our angers at our not being physically healed, can - with faith - be tempered, softened, and even let pass.
Faith can heal such angers and frustrations and the result is the freedom to be grateful. Being grateful is only the beginning, Jesus came to free us all from and free us for the new, the adventure of praise and trust.
We are offered in these readings, and in the Eucharist, invitations to return in faith and then return in thanksgiving.
REFLECTION
We hear just a little bit of a wonderful story in today’s First Reading. It would help if the whole of chapter five of Second Kings would be read. Naaman is a commander of a foreign king to whom the Lord granted a victory. Naaman has leprosy and his wife’s servant girl, who was taken from Israel earlier, tells her mistress that if Naaman would go to the “man of God” in Israel, Naaman would be healed. Naman gets permission from his king and goes in search of Elisha.
Naaman is simply told by Elisha to bathe in the river Jordan. Naaman refuses, thinking rivers in his own home land would be better than the Jordan in this foreign land of Israel. He begins returning home, but his servants beg him to just “do it”. He reconsiders and bathes seven times and is cured. So what we hear in today’s First Reading is his return humbly and gratefully to Elisha.
Naaman wants to give something in response, but Elisha refuses that. So Naaman begs for two carloads of dirt from the holy land of Israel to take back to his own land and thereby be in union with the God of Israel and the God of His being cured. It is a great story.
The Gospel relates a more familiar story which has an important twist. Ten lepers shout for healing and when they receive this gift, only one returns shouting his praise. The twist is more complicated than that the healed person is a Samaritan, a foreigner. Luke is working with Jesus’ teaching his apostles about what going up to Jerusalem is going to mean. It is stated simply in the first verse that “Jesus was continuing his journey to Jerusalem.” The apostles will learn that they, themselves, are outcasts who will be rejected, and exiled from their Jewish pasts.
Living thanks is more important than giving thanks. The Samaritan returns and he represents the universal embrace which Jesus has come to share. The other nine are healed and represent the apostles who will be scattered as Jerusalem approaches. They too will be gathered again and form the beginning of the Kingdom” about which we will hear in the following weeks. This story is a bit of a link between Jesus’ having been confronting the Pharisees about their being, rich, oppressive, and aloof and the true nature of following Jesus. Being members of Jesus’ kingdom will involve being considered as lepers and Jesus will be the one who heals. Those who come to the awareness that they are lepers will find healing in Jesus. They will be grateful living the healing touch extended through them to others.
Naaman and the leper from Samaria are non-belongers. They both leave their state of alienation and experience being healed through coming to the “Holy Land” of God. Naaman gives thanks by taking some of the Holy Ground back with him. The cured-leper returns to Jesus as “Holy Land” and gives thanks for now belonging.
So back to the Pharisees. They are the new “non-belongers” and those once alienated are now members of the “kingdom”. Perhaps the major difference has to do with “humility”. Jesus asks about the other “nine”. I imagine that they were not ungrateful, but more likely not humble enough to admit that once they were outside, different, unwelcomed. They would have to live with their pasts into their futures. The “Kingdom” is for those who stand in their earthliness which has been blessed by the “Holy Land” who is Jesus. The Pharisees stand always at a distance greater than that of the lepers when they sought cleansing. It is not so much about who gave thanks and who did not. Jesus is dedicated to calling all of humanity away from the leprosy of self-righteous pharisaic posturing. Jesus is the Land upon which, and within which we do not posture, but take positions of living our healed conditions.
Here is a little thought. The “nine” represent most Christians, at least in this. They enjoy being freed from leprosy, but lose contact with the reality of their having been outsiders, alienated, defined by something negative. They might be grateful, but they are not sure grateful for what.
The “one” represents each of us when coming to our senses; we get in touch with what it means to be redeemed by Jesus. We get in touch with our soul’s sicknesses. We touch into how disordered, depressed, angry, and or violent we once were and immersing ourselves seven or more times in the river of the redeeming Jesus, we both enjoy the freedom from, and the freedom for, the living out of His touch.
“The rich suffer want and go hungry, but nothing shall be lacking to those who fear the Lord.” Ps.34, 11
http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/
"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us"
What can adversity teach us about the healing power of love and mercy? Proverbs gives us a hint: A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity (Prov. 17:17). When adversity strikes you find out who truly is your brother, sister, and friend. The gospel records an unusual encounter between individuals who belonged to groups which had been divided and hostile towards one another for centuries. The Jews regarded the Samaritans as heretics worse than pagans. And as a result they had no dealings with each another. They were openly hostile whenever their paths crossed. In this gospel narrative we see one rare exception -- a Samaritan leper in company with nine Jewish lepers. Sometimes adversity forces us to drop our barriers or to forget our prejudices. When this band of lepers saw Jesus they made a bold request. They didn't ask for healing, but instead asked for mercy.
The word mercy literally means "sorrowful at heart". But mercy is more than just compassion, or heartfelt sorrow at another's misfortune. While compassion empathizes with the sufferer, mercy goes further. It removes suffering. A merciful person shares in another's misfortune and suffering as if it were his own. And he will do everything in his power to dispel that misery. Mercy is also connected with justice. Thomas Aquinas said that mercy "does not destroy justice, but is a certain kind of fulfillment of justice. ..Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; (and) justice without mercy is cruelty." Pardon without repentance negates justice. So what is the significance of these ten lepers asking for mercy? They know they are in need of healing, not just physical, but spiritual healing as well. They approach Jesus with contrition and faith because they believe that he can release the burden of guilt and suffering and make restoration of body and soul possible. Their request for mercy is both a plea for pardon and release from suffering. Jesus gives mercy to all who ask with faith and contrition.
Why did only one leper out of ten — a Samaritan whom the Jews despised as a people worse than pagans — return to show gratitude? Gratefulness is related to grace — a word which means the release of loveliness. Gratitude is the homage of the heart which responds with graciousness in expressing an act of thanksgiving. The Samaritan approached Jesus reverently and gave praise to God. If we do not recognize and appreciate the mercy shown us we will be ungrateful. Ingratitude is forgetfulness or a poor return for kindness received. Ingratitude easily leads to lack of charity and intolerance towards others as well as to other sins, such as discontent, dissatisfaction, complaining, grumbling, pride and presumption. How often have we been ungrateful to our parents, pastors, teachers, and neighbors? Do you express gratitude to God for his mercy and do you show mercy to your neighbor?
"Lord, may I never fail to recognize your love and mercy. Fill my heart with gratitude and thanksgiving and free me from pride, discontentment, and ingratitude. Help me to count my blessings with gratefulness and to give thanks in all circumstances."
Psalm 98:1-4
1 O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.
2 The LORD has made known his victory, he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html
http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php
The ancient world was terrified of leprosy, which is a highly contagious disease, and having no cure for it they banished lepers from society. Lepers became outcasts, required by the law to stand at a distance from people, and to shout “Unclean, unclean!” when they saw anyone near (Leviticus 13:45f). The Samaritan leper in this story was doubly isolated, for there was deep religious hatred between Jews and Samaritans.
These ten outcasts must have heard of Jesus’ reputation and they are desperate for help. They kept their distance, as the Law required, and they shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’
Every society, every group, has outsiders. How a group sees and treats outsiders is the clearest indicator of the values the group is based on. “We must face that fact,” wrote George Bernard Shaw, “that every society is based upon intolerance.” But to say this is to discount the possibility of an open society. To be sure, the open society has many enemies, ancient and modern, as Karl Popper’s classic (1945) made clear. We might expect that all religious societies, since they claim to be in the service of God, would be open societies; but some of them shrink into cults, and many develop cult-like qualities. There is always a match between inner and outer. If the outsider is regarded only as an enemy, then we can be sure that the inner life is diseased is some way. This is how we estimate the life of an individual; it is also how we can estimate the life of a society. An individual who only knows who he or she is against has no positive identity at all; likewise a society. The greatest tragedy for disciples of the one who said, “Love your enemies” is that they make their own identity depend on the very existence of enemies. Inevitably they will have no heart for “the weak, the sick, the wounded, the strayed, the lost” (see Ezekiel 34). They will be without the quality of mercy. The isolated, the doubly isolated, will get no hearing from them.
A Christian society that is deaf to the outsider and that marginalises some of its own, can hardly be described as Christian. A Christian community of any kind is not a group of likeminded people who confirm one another in their narrowness, but a group that reaches out to those whose lives are in chaos, whose voices are not heard, whose presence is not welcomed.
The only leper who came back to give thanks to God was the Samaritan, the doubly isolated. That was a poor reflection on the nine. Today’s gospel reading is a call for us to think about how we relate to our Church, our groups, our family…and to outsiders. We can have a subtly hostile attitude to all outsiders, and we are even capable of making outsiders of some within. Jews despised Samaria as a blot on their country. We need to realise the significance of the fact that Jesus reached out to Samaritans, went into the heart of Samaria (John 4), and even made Samaritans the heroes of some of his parables. He even had the word ‘Samaritan’ thrown at him as an insult by people who considered themselves insiders (John 8:48).
http://www.presentationministries.com/
SKIN-GRAFT "His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child." �2 Kings 5:14 We have all become spiritual lepers through sin. Many of us are ashamed of what we've done. Although we've asked for God's forgiveness, we don't feel forgiven, but "dirty" and defiled. The Lord wants not only to heal us but to restore our innocence. When God healed Naaman of leprosy, Naaman did not receive the skin of an adult, but "his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child" (2 Kgs 5:14). Do you recall the innocence, delight, and carefree nature of childhood? God wants to give us a new, fresh, untarnished outlook on life. By His grace, we can "acquire a fresh, spiritual way of thinking" (Eph 4:23). We can recover our lost innocence by: To sum up, we are purified by obeying the Lord. He will thoroughly wash us of our guilt and cleanse us of our sins (Ps 51:3-4). Prayer: Father, purify me "from every defilement of flesh and spirit" (2 Cor 7:1) so I strive to fulfill my consecration perfectly. Promise: "If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him; if we hold out to the end we shall also reign with Him." �2 Tm 2:11-12 Praise: Praise You, risen Jesus. You promise to give us not just life after death, but a glorious, completely new life. Alleluia!
http://www.judeop.org/dailyreflections.htm
http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/
☆☆☆ Homily from Father James Gilhooley The rabbi asked the prophet, "Where shall I find the Messiah?" He responded, "At the city gates among the lepers." The rabbi queried, "What is he doing there?" The prophet answered, "He changes their bandages." (Laurence Kushner) ☆☆☆ Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino One of my favorite comedians is Bill Cosby. I grew up laughing at his standup routines. He hit the big time with his description of Noah building the ark. He built on that with a lot of great routines, my favorite was his playing football for Temple University against dreaded Hofstra. Of course, the Cosby show not only kept Americans laughing but helped them see each other as people, not as members of this or that race. ☆☆☆ Homily from Father Andrew M. Greeley Background: ☆☆☆ Homily from Father Cusick Jesus cures ten, but only one returns to give thanks. "Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? No one, it seems, has come back to give glory to God but this foreigner." Perhaps this percentage of thankfulness continues among God's children today. All have abundant and infinite reason to give thanks yet very few turn to the Lord with words and hearts expressive of gratitude. ☆☆☆ http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/sermon/twenty-eighth-sunday The Gospel text today opens with an insignificant little phrase that is easily overlooked. You might think that it is just an introductory couple of words prior to St Luke getting to the meat of the matter. Those few little words are, ‘On the way to Jerusalem.’ Let me suggest that actually this short phrase might be rather important. I say this because in a way it is a summary of Jesus’ whole life. His entire life was a preparation, a journey towards the cataclysmic events that occurred in Jerusalem. So these few little words are not a mere transitional phrase but capture the whole purpose of his ministry among us. It is important to state here that Luke is not a Geographer, he is a Theologian. And in so far as his Gospel is an historical account of the life of Jesus it is so only in a rudimentary sense. Luke did not go to a lot of trouble to pinpoint Jesus’ whereabouts on any particular day because for him that was quite unimportant. What was important for him was Jesus’ purpose; what he said and did and how he prepared for it. You can just imagine St Luke sitting down with a vast mass of disconnected material: the evidence of witnesses, the stories that had been handed down and accounts by various disciples. Quite a lot of stories, miracles and sayings would crop up again and again, but there would be differences between the various accounts. Some incidents would only have been remembered by one person, others by very many people. His job was to put it all in order and set it out for the reader. He would know that his Gospel would be read over and over again by many different people, it would be used in the liturgy and it would be an important tool for converts who wished to know more about Jesus. So his job was to give a reliable and ordered account of the life of Christ. But then there is the whole question of geography and the timetable of events, and the difficulty of presenting these things. Although he knew quite well that Jesus went to Jerusalem several times during his public ministry, what Luke decides to do is to treat the whole of his public ministry as one great journey beginning in Galilee and going up to Jerusalem where he meets with his death on the Cross and his resurrection from the empty tomb. Luke is a man for the broad sweep and he has understood very well that Christ’s whole ministry can be summed up in that journey or progress towards Jerusalem. It is interesting to see this journey motif in connection with the account he gives of the infancy of Jesus which, you will remember, ends with the Boy Jesus teaching in the Temple. What we call the Infancy Narratives are sometimes regarded as a Gospel-in-miniature and it is interesting to note that both show a movement or journey ending in Jerusalem. Luke’s other book, the Acts of the Apostles, in contrast is an account of the spread of the Early Church –in other words all the movement is away from Jerusalem. So in Luke we can see that, while he is no Geographer, geography plays a very important role and indeed it is the framework on which hangs the whole Gospel. For Luke, Jerusalem is therefore the centre of the story. It is the Holy City where God lives among his people and it is the place where the cataclysmic events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus occur. But just as the life of Jesus is considered by Luke as a journey towards Jerusalem then so, in a certain sense, is the life of each one of us. Not, of course, to the earthly Jerusalem but to the heavenly Jerusalem. During this journey that is our life we encounter many obstacles and opportunities. We make many decisions which affect its course, some of them we make consciously and deliberately, but others quite lightly and without realising that they may cast a very long shadow. I have encountered some people who think that our life here on earth is a sort of obstacle course created by God, that our task in this life is to negotiate these obstacles correctly and if we do so then we will be rewarded with eternal life. However, such a view is demeaning to us and to God. Life is no obstacle course. It is rather a wonderful journey, a pilgrimage, if you like, to the New Jerusalem. While there is undoubtedly a certain amount of suffering on this journey, and perhaps a few steep climbs, it is actually an adventure full of beauty and many rewards. But as with any other journey the best thing to do is to concentrate on the goal. If we keep our eyes set on heaven, then it is far less likely that we will take a wrong turning here on earth. This is not a journey we undertake alone. We have our families and, of course, the community of the Church who accompany us. We are, after all, the Pilgrim People of God all travelling in the same direction. We have another companion on this great journey, Jesus Christ who has travelled the road before us. He is with us all the way through, even if at most times in a hidden way, and it is he who will greet us at the end of the road. By now you might have thought I’d forgotten about the ten lepers, but no. Interestingly you can see that there are references to the journey of life in their story too. The one foreigner turns back on his road because he had forgotten to give thanks. Like us sometimes he feels that he cannot go on till he has done what is necessary. Jesus then rewards him by saying, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’ He has experienced healing and so he can resume the journey of life and so achieve his purpose which is to arrive at the gates of heaven and to experience that much greater healing which is salvation. This little story of the Ten Lepers should highlight for us the importance of thanksgiving. If we fail to acknowledge the one who gives us life and everything we possess then how will we be able to give thanks to the one who bestows on us his mercy and salvation? As always I think that the most important thing we can do as a Christian is to have the right attitude and this attitude of the Samaritan Leper is worthy of imitation. If we arrive at the end of our life-long pilgrimage of faith with an attitude of thanksgiving and appreciation then we will be assured of a warm welcome and be received into the loving arms of the Lord. Long or short it will have been a journey well travelled, a journey in good company, a fruitful and worthwhile journey. A journey to the only destination that really matters. ☆☆☆ http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/homily.lasso?id=263 Gospel Summary Jesus, continuing his journey to Jerusalem, comes upon ten lepers, and from a distance hears their plea for help, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” He instructs these outcastes from society to go and show themselves to the priests. On the way, they are cleansed of their leprosy. One of them, a Samaritan, returns glorifying God, and falls at the feet of Jesus in gratitude. Jesus remarks, “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then to the Samaritan, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” As always in the teaching of Jesus, it is faith that will determine whether we identify with the nine who are cured but not saved, or with the Samaritan who is both cured and saved. All ten lepers are healed. They all experience their return to health and to membership in the community as a good thing. However, only the Samaritan, with the intuition of faith, recognizes the good thing to be a gift of God, and acts upon that intuition. He glorifies God, and returns to thank Jesus whom he recognizes as an agent of God’s presence and compassion. In the language of later theology, the Samaritan’s faith enabled him to see with sacramental vision. Without the vision of faith, one can experience countless good things—the wonders of the universe through the eyes of science; the ability to hear, to see, to speak, to feel; a return to health from an illness. But it is only with the intuition of faith that one can experience these good things as gifts of God. Through faith they become symbols or sacraments of the personal exchange of love—God’s self-giving to us, and our grateful response in word and deed. Because the Samaritan entered into that personal exchange of divine love and human gratitude, Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” To possess health, or for that matter any other good thing of this earth, in the judgment of Jesus is not to be saved.. Faith of course must not be restricted to recognizing a good thing as God’s gift only in the miracle moments of life. Rather, as Saint Paul tells us, faith means to live in the awareness of the divine presence as a way of life, “giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:20). My favorite part of the Talmud (“Berakhot”) illustrates this essential aspect of the biblical tradition by giving examples when a faithful person will bless God in gratitude: “on seeing the ocean, on seeing the first tree blossom in the spring, on seeing a friend after six months, on hearing a sage, on receiving good news, on receiving bad news.”. Each Sunday, like the Samaritan, we return to celebrate the Eucharist in gratitude for all the gifts that God has showered upon us as individuals and as a community. With a sacramental vision of faith, we hear the words of the bible as the gift of God’s Word to us; we believe that the people around us are the church, the Body of Christ; we affirm the bread and wine truly to be the Risen Lord, the Father’s ultimate gift to us. And with hearts lifted up in faith we can pray, "Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ☆☆☆ http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/homilyfor28sunday-c.html Bottom line: This Sunday's readings call us to a new Copernican revolution: to acknowledge God as the center and source of our existence. This Sunday's readings call us to a New Copernican Revolution. The first Copernican Revolution takes its name from a Polish clergyman named Nicolas Copernicus. He initiated a major paradigm shift when he proposed the heliocentric theory. Instead of viewing the earth as the center of the universe, Copernicus postulated that the earth revolves around the sun. That was the first Copernican revolution. The new Copernican revolution is this: Rather than seeing ourselves as the center, with God as one more object revolving around us, we take a different view of things. We see God as the center and just as the earth receives life from the sun, so we receive everything from God: our life, our energy, our very existence. God is not one more object out there. No, he is the center and source of everything. This Sunday's readings call us to change our way of thinking, to experience a new Copernican revolution. Let's start with the first reading. It's about Naaman, a pagan military general. He commanded a powerful army and was used to getting his way. As a pagan (a non Israelite) he thought he had the gods at his beck and call. But none of them could cure his chronic skin disease. In desperation, he asked the prophet Elisha to help him. Elisha told him that in order to be healed, he had to acknowledge the God of Israel, the one true God. At first Namaan was reluctant, even indignant. But, as I said, he was desperate - the skin disease, his leprosy, threatened to consume him. So he did something courageous. He swallowed his pride, did what the prophet instructed and - praise God - his affliction left him. Naaman then said, "Now I know there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel." Naaman experienced a Copernican revolution. He realized that, even though he commands others, he is not the center of the universe; God, the God of Israel, the one true God is the center of all. The Gospel also illustrates this new Copernican revolution, but with irony, that is, with something unexpected, a surprise. Jesus heals ten lepers, nine of them Jewish and one of them a non-Jew, a Samaritan. The Jews should have come back to Jesus to praise God, but it appears they were anxious to make up for lost time. Only the Samaritan, the non-Jew, the half-breed, only he returned to thank Jesus. To thank someone, to express gratitude is a beautiful thing. It recognizes that I am not the be all and the end, that I am dependent upon others, that I can receive a gift. To thank someone acknowledges dependence and to thank God is the beginning of a personal transformation. All of us want a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at ourselves and others. We want to put God at the center. Like the Samaritan, we do it by an act of thanksgiving or as we say, Eucharist - a Greek word that means thanksgiving. Eucharist, the Mass, requires a new Copernican revolution - putting God at the center, recognizing that all comes form him. I would like to conclude with a man who illustrates the new Copernican revolution. This might surprise you, but the man is Copernicus himself. Besides being a brilliant scientist and the most important modern astronomer, Copernicus was a devout Christian. He studied theology and received minor orders. In the year 1500, when he was twenty-seven years old, he made a pilgrimage to Rome for the Holy Year. As a cleric, he prayed the office, the Liturgy of Hours, every day. In the spring of 1543, when Copernicus was on his death bed, his admirers brought him his astronomy books and asked him to point out the most significant passages. He brushed the books aside and instead asked his friends to write this epitaph: O Lord, I cannot ask for the faith that you gave to Paul; Copernicus saw the heart of our relationship to God. He is our Creator. We are fallen creatures in need of grace. Before God we cannot assert our rights, but only gratefully accept his free gift. He is not some object out there, waiting to do our bidding. No, he is the center and from him, we receive all that we are have and are. This Sunday's readings call us to a new Copernican revolution: to acknowledge God as the center and source of our existence. Amen.
The Nazarene was on His final trip to Jerusalem. He was an outlaw. There was an all points bulletin out for Him. He was avoiding the main roads and moving only at night. He was eating cold food. He was afraid to light a fire. Bounty hunters were everywhere. He had to be spent.
He came to an unnamed village. Scholars feel it was probably El Gannim. The town still exists. The ruins of an ancient church built to commemorate this miracle are there.
He dared to stay in the village openly because it is believed the inhabitants were friendlies. Probably He had already worked miracles there. He would be able to sleep indoors between sheets in a clean bed and enjoy a home-cooked meal.
The lepers of this tale used His name. This supports the theory that He was well known in the area. Leprosy or Hansen's disease was then commonplace. It is not a pretty disease. It can destroy one's features. What AIDS is to our culture, leprosy was to theirs. Leprosy resisted all cures until 1960.
These lepers must have had a tremendous faith in Him. They were asking for the cure of a disease they themselves considered incurable. We need such faith.
They met Him on the town outskirts. By law lepers were not allowed into the town proper. They were forced to wear shredded clothing and go without head cover despite the fierce sun. The object of all this was to make it easier for healthy people to give them wide berth. They had become non-persons. They were the walking dead.
It was amazing that they approached the Teacher. They would never have attempted that with another rabbi. Most rabbis of that period ran and hid when confronted by lepers. One confessed he threw rocks at them to clear his path. His actions were legal. What did these people see in the Messiah? He must have been a person most easy to walk up to. They sensed that he "had trained His heart to give sympathy and His hands to give help."
When the lepers came up to Him, the crowd about Him began looking for holes in the ground to crawl into. But, as the lepers suspected, Jesus held His ground. One can see why a Rembrandt is needed to paint such a picture.
Jesus introduced other healing miracles with certain preliminaries. Confer Mark 7: 31-37. Here He did no such thing. These people He felt had suffered long enough. He cleaned them of their foul disease on the spot. God is, as one pilgrim has told me, an active verb. Again we receive a rich insight into what makes the Christ tick. His precipitate action speaks pages about Him. Would that we might borrow His technique in our actions with others in pain.
He did more than cure these former lepers. He chatted with them. This was the first conversation they had with a non-leper in years. And in most probability He touched them and even stroked them. He did so in another such Gospel miracle. Check Matthew 8,1-4. Recall that line from the old negro spiritual, "What a friend we have in Jesus!" It no doubt sums up the attitude of the former lepers.
But only one leper, as we know, had the class to return after the miracle to thank Him. "He fell on his face at Jesus' feet," writes Luke, "and kept on thanking Him." The Nazarene was exhilarated by this fellow and crushed by the ingratitude of the others. Meister Eckhart wrote wisely, "The most important prayer in the world is just two words long: Thank you." Yet, we live in a society in which those words are coming to be used less frequently not only to God but to one another. May we copy the style of the grateful leper who returned! We should all reflect on the line that teaches, "God has two homes - one in heaven and the other in a thankful heart." The sage says we shall be Christians when we weep not because we have lost something but because we have been given so much.
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Have you ever heard Bill Cosby’s routine about having children at home? In one part he talks about his daughter who was three at the time. Everything she sees becomes, “Mine!” in a shrill voice that leads him to yell at his eleven year old, “let her have it. She already has half of my stuff.”
All of you who have had or who have little ones at home, children or siblings, know what he is talking about. Mine is one of the first words that babies learn to say consistently. Everything a toddler sees becomes Mine. That might be OK for a three year old, but some people go through life seeing themselves as the center of the universe. To some people, everything is Mine. Life for them is “all about me, my feelings, my needs, my success, my happiness.” Some people never grow up.
Growing up is really about learning new words: Yes, Ours, Yours, Please, and perhaps the hardest phrase to learn and to mean, Thank you. “Thank you for caring about me. Thank you for worrying about me. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for loving me, despite myself.”
When we say Thank you we realize that we are not the center of the universe. When we say “thank you” we realize that what we are and what we have are the result of a goodness and beauty beyond ourselves.
Naaman of Syria said, “Thank you.” General Naaman, the leper of the first reading from Second Kings 5, traveled to the Kingdom of Judah because his servant girl, a Hebrew, had said that there was a prophet there who could heal him. Naaman was too important to speak to some peasant prophet, so he went right to Jerusalem. He carried a letter from the King of Syria to the King of Judah asking him to heal the general. That King thought Naaman was looking for a reason to start a war. He couldn’t heal him. Naaman thought he had healing coming to him. He would have returned to Syria irate, but his servants encouraged him to seek out the prophet Elisha. So Naaman showed up with his royal retinue at the prophets humble cottage. Elisha didn’t even come out of his house. He just sent word that Naaman should go jump in the lake, or at least the Jordan River, and do it seven times. How humbling. The great man who expected everyone to respond to his demands, was told in a message that he should go jump into the river. It was bad enough that he thought he would have to do something extraordinary, like climb a mountain in his bare feet and eat find some rare berries to eat. But he was asked to do something very simple. He refused to do it, until the Hebrew servant reasoned with him to recognize a power greater than his. This healing was not to be about him. It would be about the God of the Hebrews who would heal him. So Naaman jumped into the Jordan River seven times and his skin became that of a new born child. That’s where today’s reading picks up. Naaman returns to Elisha to say “thank you.” He wants to give gifts to Elisha, but Elisha wouldn’t accept gifts. It was the Lord who Elisha served. It was the Lord who healed Naaman. So Naaman takes two cart loads of soil from Israel and returns to Syria where he would spend the rest of his life giving thanks to God on the soil of the Holy Land.
We pray to God every day because we realize that we have received gift after gift from God. We realize that life is not about us. Life, at least life worth living, is about God. So we thank God. We thank Him for love that is so deep that we cannot begin to fathom it. We look at the cross, and we are shocked at the extent of God’s love for each of us, no matter what we may have done in our lives. We thank God that he has given us people all around us who reflect His Love to the world. We thank God for our children, even when they are little and still at the “Mine” stage of life. We thank God for our Teens who are taking steps from mine to yours, from egocentricity to Christian love. We thank God for our college people and young adults who are filling us with so much hope for the future of our world. We thank God for our Christian adults, single and married, who are convinced that they can be holy, set apart for the Lord. We thank God that he has set each of us in one of the most beautiful states in a country of loving, generous and free people. The sacrifice of other Americans have made this a great country.
We thank God that He became one of us to save us from sin, from the selfishness that deceives us into thinking we are each the center of the world. We thank God that through the sorrows and sufferings of each of our lives, His Love, His Presence, Our Divine Lover, Jesus Christ, has sustained us and even helped us to grow through the pain. And what really is our pain? How difficult has life really been? Have we lost a loved one? Perhaps, but would we rather not have loved? Of course not! Do we have physical pain? Perhaps. But hasn’t that pain made us more aware of how others might be hurting? Of course. Do we really have serious problems? Perhaps. But don’t we also have the Infinite Solution to all problems loving us, and caring for us?
God loves us. He loves us not for what we do, but for whom we are. He loves us, and He care for us. Each of us, individually and eternally. The only fitting response that we can make for God’s unexplainable and unmerited love for us, is to come before Him in humble gratitude. Like Naaman, the Syrian, we pray on holy ground. We go to Church, and we thank God for His Presence in our lives.
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
The rules in the Hebrew law about “leprosy” (which covered a wide variety of contagious diseases and not merely what we know today as “Hansen’s Disease”) were intended to be a crude public health measure. It was necessary to protect the whole village from such infection, so those whose faces were covered with skin lesions were exiled until the infection had passed.
In effect they were in quarantine. The local priest was the public health official who pronounced the quarantine over. Not all such diseases were permanent like what we know as leprosy today.
Since it was assumed that the lepers were being punished for their sins, their exile was all the more harsh. Small wonder that the cured lepers rushed home to their families and friends. Yet they were thoughtless. Jesus did not need their gratitude, though surely he would have liked it. But they needed to be grateful.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a man who was struck down in his early thirties who was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had a wife and young children and a promising career. Suddenly all of that was swept away from him. He could barely talk or walk. He was in constant agony. His friends and his family, except for his wife and mother, avoided him. The doctors shook their head. It was too bad. He was a nice man and deserved longer life. But there was nothing they could. At last he went to a very famous doctor who offered to operate on him, even though everyone else said the tumor was inoperable. The doctor warned the patient and his wife that he could very well die during the operation, though he (the doctor) was pretty sure that he would survive and return to health. They decided that they should take the risk.
After nine hours of surgery, the doctor came into the waiting room, grinned at the man’s wife and said, “Got it!” The man recovered and went on to a happy and successful life. Twenty years later the surgeon died. We should go to the wake, the patient’s wife said. I’d like to, her husband replied. But it’s on the weekend and I have an important golf tournament.
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
The teaching of Christ here is not about the healing of the flesh; it is of a far greater and more precious gift: the grace of God by faith in Christ Jesus. God's gift of faith in the Son of Man is poured out freely for all, regardless of race, language, or place. The working of his grace is seen here in the gratitude of the Samaritan. He who was thought to be socially repulsive, and an outcast even before he contracted leprosy, shows the dignity of faith in returning to give thanks to Christ. "Rise, and go your way, your faith has saved you."
How often do our prayers turn to the theme of thanksgiving to God? Does our concern for present needs and wants cloud our remembrance of past gifts and blessings? Do we forget that all we have and are is "gift" - what then should be our response to the Giver?
Giving thanks is at the heart, and gives its name to, the most important act of the Church: the offering of the holy Eucharist in the sacrifice of the Mass.
"Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it return to the Father, for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in that of their Head." (CCC 2637)
The Scriptures are our model of prayer and illustrate for us the many reasons and occasions on which we can and should render thanks to God "from whom all blessings flow."
"As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: 'Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you'; 'Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.' (1 Thess 5:18; Col 4:2)" (CCC 2638)
Refusal to thank another may imply one deserves the gift. Entitlement is an illusion to which all humans can fall prey. This dishonors the generosity and virtue of the giver and shows sinful pride in the receiver. Failure to thank God makes the creature equal to the Creator. Reality is distorted and pride reaches even greater heights: the finite pretends to infinity.
Pride is to be shunned by the baptized believer as a sin against divine love which puts salvation at risk if unrepented.
"One can sin against God's love in various ways:
"- indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
"- ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him love for love.
"- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
"- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
"- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments." (CCC 2094)
Thankfulness is a necessary component and expression of our love for God who has loved us in Christ to His death on the Cross. What can we do but give thanks every day to God who has put to death our death by the death of His own Son and, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, given us a share in His own life which never ends? If we open our hearts and minds to this perspective of faith, how could we fail to begin and end every prayer and offering in heartfelt and loving thanks to our heavenly Father?Life Implications
the mercy that you showed to Peter I dare not ask.
But the grace that you showed to the dying robber, that, Lord, show to me.
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