From the Heart of the Shepherd
- Church of St. Mark
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
From the bulletin for The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025 October 12)
Oct 12: 28th Sunday OT
From healing to gratitude, and from gratitude to worship. That’s the pattern in both First Reading and Gospel today. Naaman the Syrian is healed by washing in the Jordan. In gratitude not just for his baby-fresh skin, but his new lease on life, he offers Elisha the prophet a gift worthy of a king: “ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments” (2 Kgs 5:5). As prophets tend to travel light through this world (John the Baptist likewise had no use for festal garments), Elisha refuses. But he leaves Naaman with yet another gift: two mule-loads of earth from the Holy Land, upon which the general intends to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel for the rest of his life. (See 2 Kgs 5:19-27 for the little-known sequel to the story, and what happens to two of those festal garments… and to Naaman’s leprosy).
Leprosy abounds all the more in the Gospel, and God’s grace all the more. Again, we have a healing (without really even a word!). After finding himself healed, one of the lepers is overcome with gratitude, breaks with the other nine who are Jerusalem-bound, and runs back to Jesus, glorifying God all the way. On arrival, the ex-leper falls at the feet of Jesus in a posture of worship. And with impeccable logic: Only God can cure the incurable. Jesus cured his leprosy. Ergo, Jesus is LORD!
Healing, gratitude, worship. We could multiply examples in which this pattern is fulfilled. The woman with the alabaster jar. The man born blind. The Garasene demoniac. Paul. Mary Magdalen. Each was crippled by a terrible affliction (and Paul was in the worst state… though he had no idea!). Each encountered Jesus, who imparted to them to a wholeness that they had never known. And in gratitude, each worshiped the true God, who (the Syrian excluded) they recognized in Jesus. And when I say “worshipped,” I mean in the strong sense: that of consecrating one’s life to Jesus. The Garasene demoniac begged Jesus to let HIm follow him, and was turned into an evangelist. Magdalen devoted her self and wealth to Jesus’ ministry, becoming perhaps His most devoted follower after the Blessed Virgin herself. Paul became a “minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).
Is the pattern visible in your life? Has Jesus saved you from sin, delivered you from unbelief and a life of selfishness, perhaps with the bonus of a bodily healing to boot? This pattern is the paradigm of discipleship. In any infinite variety of ways, healing leading to gratitute leading to a life of worship seem to be common steps in dance of all those whose encounter with Jesus results in joy.
Three takeaways for our parish life. First, see how “stewardship” is simply the attitude that flows from this saving pattern. Like Naaman, all who experience Jesus’ healing power and have come to know the true God in Him are moved spontaneously to offer Him everything in thanksgiving. And unlike Elisha, God will accept our offer! He heals us precisely so we can belong to Him.
Second, our parish worship ought to be nothing less than an assembly of grateful disciples gathered in worship of the One to whose service they are consecrated. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! We were once lost and dead, now we are alive in Him who has healed us! Our parish apostolate, then–carried out in great measure by the many ministries participating in the Ministry Fair today–can be understood as our efforts to provide graced opportunities for people to have a healing encounter with Jesus Christ through His Church. Besides worship Him, that’s all there is left to do, really!
Third: though these things happen in a special way at the Sunday (Lord’s Day!) Mass, I am convinced they are also happening on a daily (hourly!) basis in our adoration chapel. There, grateful disciples consecrate an hour to worshipping Jesus, while wounded, thirsty souls of sinners stumble in to have (please God!) a healing encounter with the true God. But the laborers are so few in this small but precious field! Pray that God would send more adorers (committed and newly converting) into our chapel.
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