28th Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the good Lord continue to cure you of all human frailties and endow you with the spirit of gratitude and praise that will enable you appreciate his enduring favours to you. Happy Sunday! +John Okoye

                                                  DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(2 Kings 5,14-17; 2 Tim 1, 6-8.13-14; Luke 17, 11-19: 28th Sunday of the Year C 2016)

    We have in the first reading a story that has some converging points with that of the gospel reading. In the first reading the figure of Naaman dominates. He was the head of the Syrian Army and a person of authority. Unfortunately, he contracted leprosy. Through the suggestion of the prophet Elisha, a man of God, he washed seven times in the River Jordan and got instantly healed. Even though he originated from a pagan area, Syria, but having experienced the prodigy, Naaman confessed that the only true God was the one believed in and honoured by the people of Israel: Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. He wanted to show appreciation to the prophet through gifts. His insistence, notwithstanding, Elisha categorically refused accepting any gift, with the motive to teach that the lord is the only person to thank and from whom emerges all gifts. Naaman understood and promised that from that moment on he would not be offering sacrifices and holocaust to any gods except to the only and true God, the God of Israel.

            The evangelist Luke presents to us, in the gospel reading, the case of the cure of ten lepers by Jesus, at the entrance of the village. The lepers were standing  some distance away from Jesus, following the the prescription of Leviticus 13,45-46. They were imploring loudly: Jesus! Master! Take  pity on us.  Jesus did not bother himself with the prevailing opinion that leprosy was considered a curse from God and symbol of sin, rather he urged them, as soon as possible, to present themselves to the priest.   It is important to bring out the fact that showing oneself to the priest was valid to those who were already cured of the disease. The priest was to verify the realty of the cure. This not withstanding, the ten lepers, even though still experiencing the full effects of the disease, without objection and showing no hesitation, set out, in obedience to Jesus’ directives.  Their faith was fully rewarded, for while they were going away, they were cleansed. After their cure, one expected that they should return to thank who healed them. All did not, expect one. He might have had the intuition that God manifested his presence and power in Jesus who healed him. Jesus accepted the gratitude and adoration, unlike Prophet Elisha, because he was not just a prophet, he was the Son of God. It was for the act of faith, for having praised and thanked God prostrating at the feet of Jesus that Jesus said to him: Stand up and go on your way, your faith has saved you. Though, Jesus was full of mercy, he had to express his disappointment that only one out of ten people cured came back to thank God and praise him and what is more, the cured person who came back  was a Samaritan, a member of the group whom the Israelites considered strangers, away from God, sinners and unworthy of salvation of God.

We learn two important thing  from the forgoing narrations from the Gospel of Luke and that of 2nd Kings. The first is that Jesus, because he was God, was sovereignly, free and could not be conditioned by anyone, nor be circumscribed by ethnic, religious and political barriers. In the two passages, the beneficiaries be it in the body or  in the spirit, were pagans and, that is to say, two persons completely outside the Jewish religious ambient and were considered to be excluded from the Kingdom of God.  In one of his encounters with the people of his own town Jesus (Luke 4,24-27) came out clear that no one should pretend to have the monopoly of the divine benevolence, assert his rights before God, or pretend to have special privileges or boast of his merits. Whatever he did, or conceded to people was out of his liberty and freedom, and was purely gratuitous gift, grace; He dispenses, abundantly, to anyone who showed openness,  was disposed, open and approachable. What was important to Jesus was not belonging to this tribe or this group,  this religion; not even the exterior and formal observance of the divine law, but the openness of heart, the disposition to leave oneself to be drawn  by him, availing oneself of his graces  and making use of his grace and getting converted. This should give us food for thought. This is because we may be pious and devout Christians, scrupulous observers of some law, but lovers of this life, ill disposed to change our way of life, and leave oneself to be internally transformed.
    The other lesson from the word of God is the duty of gratitude we owe to God. We need to learn  how to appreciate so many benefits we receive from God and how to raise prayers of praise and gratitude. We are not to limit ourselves to the prayer of request. We need to praise, glorify, bless and thank God the Father who gave us his Son to redeem us and who raised him from the dead. It is in him that he saved us, and made us his sons and daughters who partake of his divine life. He has also called us to be part of his church and has illumined and sustained us with the light and power of the Holy Spirit, to whom we are destined to abide in happiness forever. This incessant prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God should not remain only verbal expression or sentiments locked up in our hearts, but should be translated into apostolic action and in joyous announcement of our faith in Christ Jesus who rose from the dead, just as Paul teaches in his letter to Timothy. We are therefore to be disposed, like Paul, to suffer for the gospel and to endure every suffering so that our many brothers and sisters may reach salvation which Jesus Christ brought us. This is the best way to thank God for the benevolence which he shows towards us by making us the spokespersons or announcers/proclaimers of his message of salvific love.  Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

  

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