28th Sunday

Counter to what we normally think or what would normally catch our attention – it’s not the healing that counts; it’s the response to the healing that matters. The healing is just an outward sign of the dramatic, but unseen making new. Sometimes, as we see in today’s Gospel, the unseen making new goes unnoticed or even ignored.

Any gift requires some sort of thanks, but God’s Gift demands our gratitude and not just lip service, but life changing and life affirming loving action that is the fruit of God's gift of new and eternal life.

We see it in Naaman, a prideful and powerful general, who goes to Israel, because he has heard form a servant girl that he can be cured of his leprosy. As one of such prestige and honor would, he presents himself to the King of Israel, who dismiss him - what can I do. But, Elisha says to him I will show you that there is a prophet (a man of God) in Israel. I will show you God at work. So Naamen goes with all his men and horses in great splendor.He scoffs at the paltry means of his potential healing (simply washing in the puny Jordan) and he turns away. But in a moment of Grace, (Naaman's healing had already begun)  he decides to try anyway and he is overwhelmed by the experience “his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child”.

Part of the gift of healing was Naaman’s new knowledge (an experience of Grace) that his healing was more than skin deep. The physical healing was great and not to be dismissed but this healing was of the spirit and of his very humanity, and it compels this prideful man to real humility and gratitude. “Now I know (I have experienced) there is no God in all the earth, except the God of Israel”

We see it in the 10 lepers who Jesus heals in an even less dramatic fashion, by simply telling them to go show themselves (as proof of their healing) to the authorities, who are the only official voice that can announce them, clean. As they all hurry off, one remembers something long forgotten, or perhaps something within him stirs him to do the unexpected. The newly healed leper returns, to thank Jesus, for he knows it was more than his skin that was cleansed. He knows he was not just cured, but healed, and that his healing was complete transformation of body, mind and spirit; from death to life. And like Naaman, the leper - returned (in gratitude) to glorify God in a loud voice.

It is important, but not crucial (at least to this homily) that we reflect that both Naamen and the leper were outsiders, beyond the law and so beyond God’s saving grace. It is also worth noting that Naaman had power & prestige and the leper had none, but both became equal in their belief and in their new belief they were both set free.

For us what is unique and sanctifying, is that their gratitude went beyond being merely thankful. 

Beyond what we the American Catholic writer Flannery O’Conner lamented –

“My thanksgiving is never in the form of self-sacrifice, it is rather a few memorized prayers babbled once over lightly”  And this describes most of us most of the time. But, active all-embracing gratitude is true Christian gratitude.  It is deep, it is motivating, it is sanctifying and it compels us, not to move our lips, but to conform ourselves more and more, closer and closer to Jesus. This is what Paul describes in himself – a fearless gratitude in the Gospel.

 “Remember, Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, this is my gospel “ He says. We know the joy and confidence in which Paul proclaimed the Gospel, but he reminds us that real transformative gratitude is a grace that is both deep and broad and includes everything and rejects nothing -“this is my gospel (that is, it is Jesus Christ), for which I am suffering”.

Sacrifice and suffering are the hard side of gratitude, beyond the babbled prayers. It is never the easy choice.

Sacrifice and suffering are not inherent in the Gospel - it is the Good News, but it can be the consequences of living the good news in a self-serving self-serving world where escaping sacrifice and turning its back to suffering is preferred to facing it head on. Paul tells us that we may suffer and even be bound up in chains - both literal and metaphoric,but God gives meaning and hidden value to our sacrifice and suffering and we are free from the oppression of despair. 

How deep is Paul’s gratitude?  Well, he boldly proclaims “I bear everything”. This is the difference between lip service and all-embracing gratitude, between cheap and costly grace, the Protestant martyr Bonhoeffer would say. Paul doesn’t pick and choose what to bear. He doesn’t shy away from the heavy load. And this is sanctifying gratitude and it is the proper response to God’s gift of new and eternal life.

Gift and selfless / surrendering gratitude – Naaman saw the connection. Gift and self-less gratitude, the Samaritan leper saw the connection.  St Paul’s saw it and points out that it begins for us in baptism -

“If we have died with him we shall also live with him.” Resurrection with Christ through baptism sets in motion a new life of selfless gratitude both sanctifying and sacrificial.  But this is not a one off, but a starting point. Paul reminds us that this is a journey.“If we preserve (in gratitude on this journey of faith) we shall also reign with him”

But, this kind of gratitude must be cultivated, nourished and strengthened. We must continue to choose and respond to God in whatever form comes our way - joyful or sacrificial. Because Paul is clear -  “If we deny him he will deny us.” This is true. God has given us the great human gift of choice and so is we choose to deny God, he must sadly respect the choice and so by default denies us.“But, if we are unfaithful (the unfortunate attribute of our human condition) God remains faithful”

For no matter how many times we fall down, stumble, get lost, or break down Jesus is there, reminding us of the Father’s faithfulness, love and mercy. He is always there to heal us with a touch or a word and to command us in love “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you”