We tend to overcomplicate things. It’s so easy to do. Naaman in today’s first reading simply did what God had requested of him to do, and healing occurred. It’s funny because Naaman was offended when he first heard the prescription. “Wash 7 times in the Jordan.” He wanted a quest! Find the lost secrets of a city! Return with the head of a giant! Instead, God said, be obedient. Just go do what I ask, and you will be healed. It took a lowly servant with a simple vision to say “Hey if they had asked you to go to the ends of the earth, you would have done it… why then don’t you just do what God said?”
Isn’t that a lot of what is wrong with us still today? We want everything to be complicated. We look for hidden knowledge or secrets of wisdom to give us a key to happiness. We wait for God to show himself in this way or that. “God if you do this, I’ll believe.” “God I need to feel you, speak to me!” If only God would have given us a sign? Someone raising from the dead, and ascending of their own power into Heaven…
That’s the funny part, we have had the sign. The same sign that Jesus said “even if someone were to rise from the dead, they would not believe.” So He did, and so many still do not. As we enter into this mission at our Parish, it’s important for us to take two messages from today’s readings.
1. It’s simple. God’s mercy. Just do what God says.
2. We should give thanks to God for that mercy.
Only one of the lepers returned in the Gospel to give thanks. The rest, happy with their healing, simply went on with their lives. That’s us much of the time too isn’t it? How often have I forgotten to give thanks for answered prayers? How many times has God’s mercy flowed into my life and I was just unaware of it? Just recently I did a longer fast. I was hungry. I mean, belly hitting my backbone hungry. At 3 am in the morning I was laying there listening to it grumble and growl. I wanted to eat. I kept looking at the clock. My fast was ending in 5 more hours. Just 5 hours and I could eat something, I kept telling myself that to get through the night. Then, as if out of nowhere, I was struck with this thought: “What about those people out in the world who are hungry right now, who will wake up with nothing? While you in your comfort know food is coming, they have none to eat.”
That’s the kind of mercy that we take for granted much of the time. The kind of mercy that flows into our lives, the love of God that sustains and moves the universe, that makes mountains rise, oceans ebb and flow. That love surrounds and penetrates us every day, do we stop to give thanks? As we go through this opportunity of renewal, try to be like Naaman, take the simple steps to receive God’s grace as taught by the Church in the Sacraments. Then try to be like the one healed man who came back, and give glory to God for answered, and unanswered, prayers.
Let souls who are striving for perfection particularly adore My mercy, because the abundance of graces which I grant them flows from My mercy. I desire that these souls distinguish themselves by boundless trust in My mercy. I myself will attend to the sanctification of such souls. I will provide them with everything they will need to attain sanctity. (1578)
–St Faustina, Divine Mercy in my Soul
A reflection on the readings for October 13, 2019: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time