Third Week of Lent
04th March 2024 (Monday)
Psalter: Week 3
Reading of the Day
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15a
In those days: Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favour, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.
Psalm 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4 (R. 42:3)
R/. My soul is thirsting for God, the living God. When can I enter and appear before the face of God?
Verse Before The Gospel
V/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ
R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ
V/. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him; Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you
R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.
Gospel : Luke 4:24-30
At that time: When Jesus had come to Nazareth, he said to the people in the synagogue, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Highlight: Not mere allegiance!
Guidelines: Faith is not necessarily a matter of how long a person belongs to a particular religion or how well he follows its rules and traditions. It is a matter of belonging to God and following His will and precepts
1. In today’s word of God, the central theme is faith. The faith of a certain Naaman, a Syrian army chief with leprosy brings him healing through the prophet Elisha. In contrast, the lack of faith of the chosen Jews of Jesus’ time brings them God’s judgment
2. The contrast is striking: Naaman listens even to the advice of his servant girl to approach Elisha for his healing; but the Jews would not listen even to Jesus, the Son of God himself who invites them for inner healing. Naaman goes all the way to meet Elisha. Jesus comes all the way from heaven to meet his people.
3. At Elisha’s direction, Naaman dips himself seven times in the waters of Jordan and gets completely healed. He becomes a new man. It was not the waters that restored health to him. But it was the power of God through Elisha. And Naaman’s humble faith became an opening to receive this grace
4. The people of Jesus too were dipped in Jordan in Baptism. But they did not become new. Their self-righteous unfaith closed them to reject God’s grace through Jesus. The miracle leads the pagan Naaman to faith in Yahweh and he confesses, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel”. On the contrary, numerous miracles by Jesus would not strengthen the faith of Jesus’ people
5. Jesus tries to make the people aware of this contrast so that they would repent and return to God in faith. In fact, God enters into human lives so as to raise them up to heaven and to eternal life.
6. But they become all the more stubborn and hostile; they drive him out and try to kill him, by throwing him down the cliff.
Practice: Faith is not merely believing some doctrines and observing some religious practices. True faith is being humble and trustful to go near to the Lord, being close to him, and getting healed
