Be healed through faith and enter into true life

Gospel of the Day (Luke 4:16-30)

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"

He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"

And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.

They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.

But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

***

Reflections:

Be healed through faith and enter into true life

Namaan was a Syrian who had leprosy and was unable to be cured of it by anyone... He journeyed to Israel where Elisha commanded him to bathe seven times in the Jordan. Then Namaan started thinking to himself that there were rivers with better water in his own country where he had often bathed without ever being cleansed of his leprosy... Nevertheless he bathed and, being at once cleansed, understood that purification comes, not from water but from grace...

This is why you were told [at your baptism]: Don't believe only in what you see since you, too, like Namaan, might say: Is that all this great mystery is about? The mystery that «eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and that has not entered the human heart»? (1Cor 2,9). I see water just like the water I see daily! Is it able to cleanse me seeing how often I have gone down into it without ever being cleansed? Learn from this that water without the Spirit does not cleanse.

That is why, too, you have read that in baptism there are «three that testify, the water, the blood and the Spirit,» (cf. 1Jn 5,7-8). For if you leave out one of them the sacrament of baptism is no longer present. For what is water without the cross of Christ? Just an ordinary element without any kind of sacramental significance. In the same way, without water there is no mystery of new birth since «no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit,» (Jn 3,5). The catechumen is someone who believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, whose sign he has received, but if he has not been baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot receive the forgiveness of his sins nor amass the gifts of spiritual grace.

Namaan, the Syrian, went down into the water seven times according to the Law; but you have been baptized in the name of the Trinity. You have confessed your faith in the Father; you have confessed your faith in the Son and your faith in the Holy Spirit. Keep hold of this succession of events. In this faith you are dead to the world, raised up for God.

Source: Daily Gospel