THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Monday of the Third Week of Lent, 2022

2Kgs 5:1-15ab

Ps

Luke 4:24-30

No prophet is accepted in his native place

I was struck by the number of angry people in this morning’s two readings. 

In the first reading (2 Kgs 5:1-15ab), the king of Israel was angry when he received a letter about Naaman, the Syrian army commander, asking that he be cured of his leprosy. Naaman became angry when the prophet Elisha asked him to bathe seven times in the Jordan river. In the gospel reading (Lk 4:24-30) the people of Nazareth were enraged when Jesus drew attention to how God had cured the pagan Naaman of his leprosy through the prophet Elisha and fed a woman from Sidon, another pagan, through the prophet Elijah. In none of the three instances was the anger justified. 

We can all find ourselves getting angry for no good reason. The people of Nazareth were angry because Jesus was implying that the God of Israel cared just as much about the people beyond Israel as he did about the people of Israel itself. They didn’t want to hear this. They had their comfortable understanding of God as the God of Israel, his favorite people, his chosen people. The God Jesus spoke about made them feel uncomfortable because it challenged their narrowness and parochialism. God is always bigger than our understanding of him, and, rather than being resentful like the people of Nazareth, we can be very grateful for that. God is always more generous, more embracing, and more forgiving than we could ever imagine. God’s ways are not ours and God’s thoughts are not ours, and that is ultimately very reassuring and comforting.

Let us pray: Father, you have taught us to overcome our sins by prayer, fasting, and works of mercy. When we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in your love. Amen.

+Remain blessed