16 March 2020
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
“Athirst is my soul for the living God” Psalm 41
Today’s first reading describes the healing of Naaman through the intercession of the prophet Elisha. It is a fascinating lesson in humility, that core Christian virtue without which no spiritual growth is possible. Naaman, the Scriptures tell us, was a powerful man and a successful military leader. But he also had the humiliating and disfiguring disease of leprosy. What we come to learn through the story is that Naaman is not only sick in body, but also in soul. He is afflicted with pride, a sort of spiritual leprosy.
Naaman sets off for Jerusalem with great displays of wealth, honor, and power, hoping to buy – or at least intimidate – a miracle from the God of Israel. To his great shock, not only is his money rejected by the King of Israel, but when he finally makes his way to the doorstep of the Elisha the prophet, Elisha does not come out to meet him. Instead, Elisha sends a messenger to communicate the way that Naaman can be healed. Not only has Naaman showed great bravado and pride upon his arrival to Israel, he reveals his inner pride when he insulted by not being treated with honor by Elisha. Naaman is not only received rather coldly and disinterestedly by the prophet, but what Elisha tells him to do to be cured is beneath him: he must wash in the dirty River Jordan. His pride stung and his honor insulted, Naaman turns to leave, until one of his servants invites him to listen to the prophet and to wash in the river. After obeying and humbling himself, to his shock Naaman is cured of his leprosy, not because he deserved it or earned it, but because God offered it to him as a free gift. Naaman returns to Elisha, now a man of humility and gratitude, coming to stand before the prophet – man to man – in gratitude for the double healing: a healing of his body and of his soul.
Naaman offers us a model for how to come before the Lord: with boldness, with humility, and with trust. It is not our meager merits, titles, trophy’s, jobs, or skills that impress God, but rather our humility of heart and trust in his Love and Mercy. This Lent let us pray for the grace to grow in spiritual boldness, humility and gratitude: boldness in our intercessions, humility in openness to how God will answer our prayers, and gratitude when he does transform us exteriorly and interiorly.