1 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.” Luke 4:24
Naaman is everything the world admires: commander of the army of Aram, “a great man and in high favor with his master,” a mighty warrior. But the reading adds one short sentence that changes everything: he “suffered from leprosy.” The way to healing begins with the smallest person in the story, a young girl from Israel taken captive in a raid, who serves Naaman's wife. She does not curse her masters; she wishes them well: “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!” Naaman sets out with letters, silver, gold and fine garments, expecting a cure worthy of his rank. Elisha does not even come to the door. He sends a messenger with a plain word: “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times.” Naaman is offended. He wanted a ceremony, a great man waving his hand over the spot. Are not the rivers of Damascus better than this muddy stream? Again it is the little ones who save him. His servants say: if he had asked something hard you would have done it; how much more when he only says, “Wash, and be clean.” Naaman goes down, immerses himself seven times, and his flesh becomes “like the flesh of a young boy.” And his heart is healed with his skin: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”
In the Gospel Jesus is in his own synagogue at Nazareth. The people who watched him grow up cannot accept that the carpenter's son speaks for God. Jesus reminds them of two old stories: Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon, and Elisha cleansed “none of them… except Naaman the Syrian.” God's mercy has always gone out beyond the borders people draw for it, and it is often received by outsiders who know their need while insiders think they have no need. The townspeople are filled with rage and try to throw him from the cliff, “but he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” The hour of his Passion has not yet come. In Lent the Church reads Naaman's story as a picture of Baptism: the proud man goes down into the water, comes up with the skin of a child, and confesses the one God. It is also a lesson for the baptized. God usually heals us through simple things: water, a word of absolution, bread and wine, a humble servant's advice. Pride wants something grand; grace asks only that we go down into the water.
Theme: “Go, wash, and be clean.”
The little captive girl, the humble waters of the Jordan, and the prophet rejected at home.
“She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”” 2 Kings 5:3
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;” Luke 1:52
Apply: Thank God for one humble person who led you closer to him, and tell them so this week.
“So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.” 2 Kings 5:14
“And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11
Apply: Go to confession before Holy Week and receive God's simple, powerful word of pardon.
“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:1–2
“There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” Luke 4:27
Apply: Listen this week, with an open heart, to someone whose voice you have stopped hearing.
God heals the proud through humble means and humble people.
The waters of Baptism make us new, and his mercy reaches every nation.
Take-home resolution: Renew your baptismal promises each morning this week with holy water.
Dear friends, Naaman had everything: power, wealth, victories, the favour of his king. But he had leprosy. And the first person who points him to healing is a little captive girl from Israel, far from home, who wishes her master well (2 Kings 5:3).
Naaman expected a great ceremony. Elisha did not even come out; he sent word: go, wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman was angry. Are not the rivers of Damascus better? It was his servants who said: if he had asked something difficult, you would have done it. How much more when he only says, wash, and be clean (2 Kings 5:13).
He went down, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean (2 Kings 5:14). And he said: now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. The water healed his skin; humility healed his heart.
In the Gospel the people of Nazareth could not accept Jesus because they knew him too well. He reminded them that Naaman the Syrian was cleansed when many in Israel were not (Luke 4:27). This Lent let us not wait for something grand. God heals us through simple things: water, a word of absolution, bread and wine. Let us go down into the water. Amen.
Children, Naaman was a big, strong general, but he was sick. God told him: go and wash seven times in the river. He thought it was too easy and got angry! But when he obeyed, God healed him. God gave us water too, in our baptism. Let us thank Jesus for our baptism today!
Lord God, you healed Naaman the Syrian in the waters of the Jordan and opened his heart to know you, the one God. Heal us of pride, teach us to receive your grace in simple things, and let our thirst for you grow, until we come with joy to the waters of Easter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Two stories about who receives God’s gift. In the First Reading, an enemy general with a skin disease is healed in the Jordan, once he stops demanding a cure fit for his rank. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds his own townspeople of that same general, and they try to kill him for it. Between the two the Psalm sings of a soul that thirsts for the living God. Thirst is the one qualification. The key words are wash, clean and accepted.
Setting.
Elisha worked in the northern kingdom of Israel in the ninth century BC, when Israel and Aram (Syria, with its capital at Damascus) were often at war. The first verse holds a surprise: it was “the Lord” who had given victory to Aram. The God of Israel is at work in the career of Israel’s enemy before that enemy has ever heard of him.
Naaman has rank, wealth and the favor of his king, and he has a disease that none of it can touch. The Hebrew word translated “leprosy” covers a range of skin conditions, and not only what we now call Hansen’s disease. The reading ends in the middle of v. 15, with Naaman’s confession of faith.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!” (5:3)
She has been carried off from her home and she has no name in the story. She could have enjoyed her master’s misfortune. Her one sentence starts the healing of a Gentile commander.
“I thought that for me he would surely come out,” (5:11)
“For me.” Naaman has already written the script: a prophet at the door, a solemn prayer, a wave of the hand. What offends him is that God’s way asks nothing grand of him.
“So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.” (5:14)
The Greek Old Testament translates “immersed himself” with the verb ebaptisato, the word that gives us baptism. Seven is the number of completeness: he obeys fully, and the waters heal because of the word he obeys.
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel;” (5:15)
This is the real goal of the story. He came for his skin and he goes home with faith. In the verses that follow he will say that he will sacrifice to no other god (5:17).
How the Church reads it.
St Ambrose, instructing the newly baptized in his work On the Mysteries, uses Naaman to teach that the water of the font does not heal by itself, and that it is the grace of Christ that heals (in substance). Lent is the season of preparing for that font and of renewing our baptism, and the story speaks to both. Each of us at some point has to go down, drop the script and do the plain thing God asks: go to Confession, make the apology, kneel down to pray.
Setting.
We are in the synagogue at Nazareth, on the Sabbath. Jesus has read from Isaiah 61, announced that the Scripture is fulfilled, and at first “all spoke well of him” (4:22). Then they ask for the wonders he worked at Capernaum (4:23). Mark and Matthew tell of the visit to Nazareth later on. Luke places it at the opening of the ministry, and many scholars think he does so on purpose, as a preview of all that will follow in his Gospel and in Acts.
Jesus is a Jew in his own synagogue, arguing from the Scriptures of Israel. The anger is that of one village on one day, as Luke tells it, and it is no ground for any blame of the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). Elijah and Elisha, whom Jesus names, are Israel’s own prophets.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” (4:24)
The people want the benefits without the prophet. Being close to Jesus, in a family or a parish or a Christian culture, carries its own danger: we may think we already know him.
“There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” (4:27)
Jesus is not saying that God had abandoned Israel. He is answering a claim on his gifts, and in the very next verses he heals many in Capernaum (4:31–41). God’s gift is a gift, and no one has it by right, whether by nation or by neighborhood.
“But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” (4:30)
Luke does not explain how. The hill at Nazareth is not the hour. The rejection and the walking on both point ahead to Jerusalem, where he will again be taken outside the city, and where his way will not end in death.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Kingdom was first announced to the children of Israel and is intended for people of all nations (CCC 543). This Gospel holds both halves of that sentence. For us who are Gentiles by descent, it is a matter for gratitude: we are the household of the widow of Zarephath and the company of Naaman. And it is a warning against thinking that we have earned the place.
Why does Jesus seem to provoke his own people?
The people of Nazareth have asked for signs, and he answers with a word that tests what they are asking for. A prophet tells the truth to those he loves, as Elijah and Elisha did. Luke shows that Jesus knew where this would lead, and he went on all the same. The sharpness serves love, and the rest of the Gospel shows him healing, teaching and weeping over his own people (19:41).