Daily Reflection: 17th Day of Lent

Today’s readings continue the theme of water that we found in the readings yesterday.

The first reading (2nd Kings 5:1-15) talks about Naaman the leper who was sent by Elisha to wash seven times in the Jordan and be clean. I think what is most interesting in this reading is that Naaman at first balks at this idea until his servant talks him into it…

Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
The prophet sent him the message:
“Go and wash seven times in the Jordan,
and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.”
But Naaman went away angry, saying,
“I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?”
With this, he turned about in anger and left.

But his servants came up and reasoned with him.
“My father,” they said,
“if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before him and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel.”

Sometimes we balk at what God asks us to do as well. But here is proof that if we listen to God and do what he says, we will be clean again.

The psalm (42:2-3, 43:3-4) also talks about thirsting for the living God. I love that yesterday the readings talked about “living water” and today the reading talks about souls thirsting for the “living God”.

And finally, the gospel (Luke 4:24-30) has Jesus talking about Elisha and Naaman, and the people in the synagogue of Nazareth where Jesus was speaking becoming angry and throwing him out of town. He said in the scripture “no prophet is accepted in his own native place”.

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“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.

To me, this is where the foreshadowing of what is to happen really begins. The gospels become darker little by little, because we are getting closer and closer to the crucifixion.

But, because I think we need a little lightness on a Monday morning, there is one line in the gospel that made me think of a very uplifting song: Days of Elijah by Twila Paris.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Our souls thirst for living water, for the living God. Fill us with your spirit and your love that we may never thirst again. Help us to remember that there is truly no God like Jehovah.
In the name of Jesus the Christ,
Amen

Questions for reflection: Do you thirst for living water? How do you fill yourself when you are thirsty?