The 28th Sunday of the Year 2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Lk 17:11-19 (year c)
‘The Lord has made known his salvation, has shown his salvation to the nations. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”
The psalmist proclaimed a God whose mercy reached beyond the cultural and national prejudices that so easily divide nations. As sinners, our lives are sustained by a mercy that reaches beyond past transgressions. If we are to live in the likeness of that mercy, we must allow this mercy to question our hidden prejudices.
The Old Testament narrative of the leper Naaman, healed by Elisha, Israel’s prophet, is an examination of ancient prejudices that endure to the present day. Naaman, a wealthy officer in a foreign army, had initially been too proud to appeal to the God of a lesser nation. Persuasion, and the cruel isolation of leprosy, had ultimately brought him to seek healing from the God of Israel.
In Naaman’s reluctance to approach the prophet, we see our own reluctance to acknowledge God’s presence in those whose lives and customs are so very different from our own. All too easily we allow a comfortable insensitivity to blind us to the stranger’s need. Faith surrenders its prejudices to God and in so doing finds a mercy that knows no boundaries.
Naaman’s experience of God’s healing mercy is retold in Luke’s account of the 10 lepers encountering Jesus at the border dividing Samaria and Galilee. This border symbolised the deep divisions between Samaritans and orthodox Judaism. As the lepers present themselves to Jesus, we are told nothing of the outsider hidden in their number. We see only the need and isolation shared by the lepers, an isolation known to every sinner. Jesus healed them all, and yet only the outsider returned to give thanks.
As we reflect on our own encounter with God’s mercy, let us pray that such mercy might never be taken for granted. To be forgiven is to live in the presence of the Father, a forgotten joy that must find expression in our lives.
Such mercy is completed in us only to the extent that we, like the Father, embrace a broken world with compassion. Let us pray for the humility that acknowledges that, without the mercy of God, we are all outsiders.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.