28th Sunday – Renew ourselves in Christ!
A pig and a chicken were walking by a church where a big charity event was taking place. Getting caught up in the spirit, the pig suggested to the chicken that they each make a contribution.
"Great idea!" the chicken cried. "Let's offer them ham and eggs?"
"Not so fast," said the pig. "For you, that's a contribution. For me, it's a total commitment." You lay eggs that do not matter to you but I lay down my life for others, People have to catch me and kill me for ham. For me it is a total commitment. Commitment is the theme of today’s readings.
In the first reading, through the prophet Elisha, God cures Naaman, a Syrian who was the military commander of the King of Aram. The healing led him to conversion and conversion led him to commitment. “Plunged”,” seven times” and “little child” help to create a sense of amazing miracle. The physical healing sets the stage for the conversion. He focus on the reading is less on gratitude on the miracle than on the gratitude of the foreigner whose cure leads to conversion of faith. When this foreign dignitary returns home he will be duty bound to regularly appear in the temple of is nation’s God, yet remarkably he proclaims that the only God is god of Israel. If Israel’s God can only be worshipped in Israel, Naaman needs to bring home Israel’s soil so he can set up upon it an altar to Israel’s God. Another bold and risky commitment!
In the gospel reading, Jesus heals ten lepers. He did not care to find out who was a Jew and who wasn’t. We do know this – there was among the ten lepers a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans were as bitter enemies as Americans and the Taliban. The fact that Jesus healed ten lepers is not the point of the story. The point is that only the foreigner came to thank Jesus and that Jesus praised him – a Samaritan, a bitter enemy of his people – for his gratitude. Why did he come back? The healing led to conversion to accept Jesus Christ as the master of his life and thus led him to a commitment, not for receiving miracles but God made a great difference in his life. He becomes a great follower.
A Christian is called to be a follower of Christ and a child of God and our participation in the Eucharist should make us more committed to the person of Christ. How is it possible? I suggest three ways.
1. Believe in the universality of God! Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are very universal in their teaching. While they support the belief that God chose the Israelites as God’s own people, the Bible contains enough passages to support that view the God’s love is universal. Thus, in the Old Testament, King Cyrus of Persia is used by God to bring liberty to the exiled Israelites. In the New Testament, the Roman centurion, the Syro-Phoenician woman, the Samaritan woman, the Good Samaritan are all presented as models of faith and godly conduct. This biblical message of the universality of God's love is very important in our times. The famous social theorist Marshall McLuhan had once said the world is becoming a “global village.”
2. Be a witness! God loves the whole world and our attitude must be a witness to that. Only then will the world come to recognize Jesus as Lord. If we read the entire story of the healing of Naaman it tells us that the king of Israel almost ruined his healing. When Naaman came to the king of Israel, saying, that he was sent by Aram so that he might be healed, the king tore his garments. He was ready to pick a fight. It was the prophet Elisha who calmed the king down and led Naaman to the river. As a result Naaman began to believe in the God of Israel. He said, “…I will not offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except the Lord” (2 Kings 5:17). If the king had had his way there would have been a war. Rather, each of us is called to be a prophet…. between races and people, between nations and cultures let us bear witness to the universal love of God so that people who meet us may also say, “…I will not offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except the Lord.”
3. Remain deeply rooted in Christ! While we proclaim the universal love of God, the scriptures call us to remain deeply rooted in Christ. “If we die with Christ we shall also live with Christ; if we persevere we shall also reign with Christ” (2 Tim 2:11-12), says St. Paul. A Christian who believes in the universal love of God does not have to either dilute his/her own faith in Christ. In fact, we cannot be anything but Christian. As far as I am concerned, my faith in Christ is my most precious possession. My faith is not subject to any compromise. My dying and my rising to eternal life will be with Christ and him alone.
Through the Eucharist, Christ is universally present in the world in a real way. As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us make the universal love of Christ present in and through our lives. Let the Eucharist and our lives bring healing to the nations.
