SALVATION FOR PAGANS
Introduction
Today’s liturgy thinks especially of converts who are baptized and immersed into the baptismal water. Are conversion and missionary action still valid? Why be concerned about unknown, distant peoples? – Elisha cured the pagan officer from Damascus, Syria, and the man found both healing and faith. Jesus, not accepted as a prophet in his own town, says that salvation will be offered to pagans. That doesn’t mean that the missionary will not be always understood and welcomed in the missions…
Opening Prayer
Lord God, our Father,
you want all people to be saved
through faith in Jesus Christ, your Son.
May Christians not practice
spiritual selfishness and clannishness
but may their faith mean so much to them
that they want to share it with others,
that your Son may be known and loved everywhere,
for he is the Lord of all for ever. Amen!
1 Reading: 2 KINGS 5:1-15ab
Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife. “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. “Go,” said the king of Aram. “I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. The prophet sent him the message: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. 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. But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”
Responsorial PSALM 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4
R. (see 42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God. R.
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God? R.
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place. R.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God! R.
Verse Before the Gospel: See PSALM 130:5, 7
Glory and praise to you, oh Christ!
I hope in the LORD, I trust in his word;
with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.
Glory and praise to you, oh Christ!
Gospel: LUKE 4:24-30
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Commentary
How do you live as a Christian and not be persecuted?
What annoyed the assembly in Nazareth were the words of ‘grace’ of Jesus. And the villagers – their village heads – expelled Jesus from their village. The term ‘village’ in the Gospels always had a negative connotation. The village people remained closed-minded, attached to their traditions, not wanting to change and resistant.
That’s why when Mark narrates Jesus healing the deaf and dumb man in 7:31, Jesus took him away from the crowd. To open his ears to help him listen to something completely different and to help him to speak in a new way, it was necessary to take him away from the noise of the crowd. And when Jesus cured the blind man from Bethsaida in Mark 8:22, he repeated the action: taking him out of town and helping him see the world differently. After healing him, Jesus told him not to return to the village. If you return to your old ways, you return to your blindness.
Jesus and his message were rejected because the people could not take criticism. As announcers of the Gospel, if what happened to Jesus does not happen to us, we should ask ourselves: Did I preach the authentic Gospel, or did I say what people desired to hear from me? Sometimes it is misunderstood that a capable evangeliser does not provoke, does not disturb, always says only what people like to hear, and does things in the way that has always been done…
But, the aim of an evangeliser is not to please people, nor to speak what people expect him to speak, but to spread the Word of Christ. Do we experience resistance to changing certain traditions that have little or nothing to do with faith? In our church communities, that is what people love to observe and practice. That is why we come across some very virtuous Catholics but reject Pope Francis’ teachings and life as heretical.
Jesus did not dilute his message to win sympathy in his hometown. The Gospel must be announced in its authenticity. It can be received or rejected but not modified.
One day two bishops met. One of them worked in a place where Christians were persecuted, and his colleague asked him: How do you live as a Christian in a place where you are persecuted? The bishop was a little pensive and then turned to his colleague and said: ‘What I do not understand is, how you manage to live as a Christian without being persecuted?’
Intentions
– For those who are preparing for baptism, that the Word of God may become their guide in life and that baptism may renew them, we pray:
– For the Christian community, that they may prepare a hearty welcome and support for the newly baptized, we pray:
– For those who have joined us in the faith, that they may experience us as joyful, redeemed people who know how to love and to serve, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God,
may we have enough faith
to welcome your Son among us
in these simple signs of bread and wine.
May we and people everywhere
accept that you come to us all
with a human approach
through the humanity of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen!
Prayer after Communion
Lord, our God,
Father of all people everywhere,
strengthen with your word and your body and blood
all those who have left
their country and culture
to bring your Good News
to different countries and other cultures.
May they humbly serve their new people,
receive their love and gifts of mind and heart,
and help the local Church
to grow in Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord. Amen!
Blessing
We should also think during Lent the converts who will be accepted into the Church through baptism, the great Lenten sacrament. It is not merely that individuals join us in the Church, but that the community of the Church must be ready to receive these people and to make them feel at home. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!