Monday of the Third Week of Lent 2023
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”…
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.
-2 Kings 5:9-10, 14
The Readings assigned for this Monday of the Third Week of Lent present us with the story of the healing of Naaman. Although he is a figure who is largely lost to history, the Second Book of Kings tells us that Naaman, an Aramean, was a commander of the armies of Ben-Hadad II, the king of Aram-Damascus, in the time of Joram, king of Israel (who ruled from around 850 to 840 B.C.).
In their reflections on these readings, some preachers and commentators will choose to focus on the baptismal imagery presented in the story. This is certainly an appropriate theme for Lent. Baptism, the first of the Sacraments of Initiation which the Elect are preparing to receive at Easter, is the sacrament of “death and purification…. regeneration and renewal… and rebirth in the Holy Spirit” (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1262). We can see this purification and regeneration prefigured in Naaman’s healing bath in the Jordan River.
When reflect on the First Reading and Jesus’ words in the Gospel together, however, we see another, broader theme beginning to emerge.
A gilt bronze and champlevé enamel plaque from an altar retable showing the cleansing of Naaman, made in the Meuse Valley (ca. 1150–60) in the British Museum, London
The liturgy today is inviting us to reflect on the question of who is “in” and who is “out.” For many Jews, the prospect that God would choose to grant health and wholeness to a foreigner (who was also a military commander) would have been a scandal. After all, he wasn’t one of the Chosen People, so how could God choose to favor him with such a precious gift?
This same tension is present in the Gospel. The people listening to Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth seem to have felt they had a sense of who could be a worthy teacher for them, and it certainly couldn’t be Jesus! After all, they knew his parents and had watched him grow up. And so, Jesus places before them—and us—a challenging reality: God chooses those whom God wills. Or, to say it another way, the work of salvation is God’s initiative. It isn’t our place to dictate who has access to grace and the gifts of God.
Are we able to open ourselves to the possibilities of this “God of surprises” and, in humility, to lay aside the certitude that is too-often a quality of “faithful” Christians? Speaking of this in a 2022 Angelus Address, Pope Francis reflected:
“Do we resemble his fellow countrymen, who believed they knew everything about him? “I studied theology, I took that course in catechesis… I know everything about Jesus!” Yes, like a fool! Don’t be foolish, you don’t know Jesus. Perhaps, after many years as believers, we think we know the Lord well, very often with our ideas and our judgments. The risk is that we become accustomed, we get used to Jesus. And in this way, how do we grow accustomed? By closing ourselves off, closing ourselves off to his newness, in the moment he knocks on your door and tells you something new, and wants to enter into you. We must stop being fixed in our positions. The Lord asks for an open mind and a simple heart. And when a person has an open mind, a simple heart, he or she has the capacity to be surprised, to be amazed. The Lord always surprises us: this is the beauty of the encounter with Jesus.”
The invitation of the Season of Lent is to recognize that the mystery of God—and the gifts of God’s mercy and forgiveness—are not a puzzle to be pieced together or a riddle to be solved. Rather, as a season of humility and transformation, Lent invites us to recognize that we don’t have all the answers and to own that each of us stands in need of healing and wholeness, just like Naaman.
The question before us today is two-fold: are we willing to cooperate God’s grace so that we might experience God’s healing touch and can we let go of our certitude? And, what would it mean to open our hearts to new possibilities for ourselves and for others, allowing God to be God?
May your unfailing compassion, O Lord,
cleanse and protect your Church,
and, since without you she cannot stand secure,
may she be always governed by your grace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for Monday of the Third Week of Lent
