Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

What’s The Path To Spiritual Healing?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center

Sunday, October 9, 2022

The story of Naaman is our first reading today. On the surface, it is a simple narrative; but in the depth, it is spiritually packed. Naaman is a successful commander of the Syrian army at a time when Syria was a major political power. He was famous, influential, feared, and admired. In the worldly sense, he is the kind of person most of us would like to be or would like our children to be. We want to be famous and powerful. We want our enemies to fear us and our friends to admire us. Although Naaman is a powerful and important figure in the Syrian army, he also has leprosy that worries, torments and humiliates him. Leprosy is a kind of skin disordering and disfiguring disease. He is a significant public figure with a nagging and embarrassing condition. How and where will his help come from? A young Israelite slave girl captured by Naaman’s army enters the stage and recommends a prophet in Israel that might cure Naaman. In Naaman’s entourage, no one is lower in social scale than this Israelite slave girl. In the normal course of things, she would serve Naaman quietly and not be heard. But now she has become a source of wisdom and if Naaman wants to be cured of his leprosy, he has to humbly accept her recommendation. Despite the fact that her counsel is a welcome one to someone like Naaman, it is still a difficult step for Naaman to take because it requires him going to a foreign religion to be healed. It is like someone asking you to travel to India or China to see a Buddhist monk that might heal you. I can imagine you protesting against the move. That’s exactly how it is for Naaman. Eventually, Naaman takes her advice, and with permission from his own king, he goes to see the king of Israel. When Naaman tells the king of Israel that he is in his land to see prophet Elisha, the king does not believe him. He thinks Naaman, from an enemy country, is attempting to spy his own land. So, he tears his own clothes and turns him down. 

It is a humiliating thing for Naaman. His coming to this foreign country was at the “behest” of a slave girl, and now a less influential king compared to his own king is blocking his way and denying him the opportunity to see the healing prophet. After hearing of the situation, prophet Elisha persuaded the king to allow Naaman to see him. Naaman was finally allowed to see the prophet. But before he got to the prophet’s house, Elisha himself sent a messenger to Naaman instructing him to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan. In the world that Naaman lived and moved, this is quite humiliating. He is a great General of the great Syrian army. He is a leading figure in his country. Before he came, he went to see his king. In Israel, he also met the king of Israel. After the initial humiliating refusal, he is on his way to see a provincial prophet that he has never heard of before. Rather than to see him personally, the prophet sends a messenger. And to add salt to injury, the prophet asks him to go and wash in a Jordan river. Deeply upset, Naaman says, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand there to call on the name of the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the place, and thus cure the leprous spot.” Further expressing his anger, Naaman says, “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.” After all these setbacks and humiliation, Naaman agreed to do the bidding of the prophet. He dips himself into the river seven times, and right away, “His flesh became again the flesh of a little child, and he was clean of his leprosy.” 

What is the spiritual lesson from this story? Firstly, everyone of us, no matter how accomplished and important we are, has some form of leprosy. That is to say a disease, a mental illness, a persistent moral fault, an addiction that torments us, humiliates us, and frightens us. As hard as we may want to dismiss it, everyone has something that worries, bedevils, shames, and frightens us. St. Paul refers to it as “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7), which he begs the Lord three times to remove. But the Lord tells him, “my grace is sufficient for you.” Do we want to get rid of this thorn? Yes! But we should be careful because that thorn might be the very thing that God is using to bring us to him. The very thing we would like to immediately get rid of in our life might be the very thing that God is using to bring us close to him. God can use your very weakness to get to you. As the saying goes, “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Secondly, if you want to be healed, you must walk the path of humility. Naaman was healed because he quelled and cooled his pride and then submitted his will to God. Is this easy? Not at all! But the only way to spiritual healing is through humility and not ego inflation. 

Centuries later, the Gospel says that as Jesus entered a village, he was met by ten lepers. Standing at a distance as required by the Jewish law, they raised their voices in supplication, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” Again, in those words we hear a great mark of humility. They know that no great act is going to save them. No great accomplishment can heal them. There is nothing they could possibly do that can better their conditions. What they need to do is to humbly submit to Jesus the Master of the universe. So, they called upon his name in faith and trust. We all have leprosy. What the ten lepers did is the necessary first step we must take. We must admit our powerlessness and weakness and say what we say at every Mass: Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy. After the lepers were healed, only one Samaritan returned to give thanks. Like Naaman, the Samaritan (both of them are non-Israelites) have further grace and humility to give thanks. He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. So should we when healing comes. But it will only come through humility. To the Samaritan Jesus says, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Faith is not stupidity or naiveté. It is an attitude of trust in the will and purpose of God. How should we deal with the thorn in the flesh? Turn to the Lord in faith and humility and say: Lord, save me! And when healing comes, have the further humility to kneel down and give thanks.