Each year, I’m always struck by the contrast between Naaman
in our first readying, who came to believe, and the people of Nazarath, who
hardened their hearts toward Jesus.
You would expect the stories to be reversed, no? You would
expect Naaman, a pagan, a gentile, to reject the God of Israel. But he takes
a leap of faith—he follows the strange
instructions of the prophet Elisha—he bathes in the waters of the Jordan, and
he is cleansed, and comes to proclaim “there is no God in all the earth, except
in Israel."
And then contrast Naaman’s faith, with the faithlessness of the
people of Nazareth. They drive him to the edge of town to throw him over a
cliff.
Mother Church presents us with this contrast during this
Lenten season, no doubt to challenge us—to ensure that we are responding to God
in faith and not hardening our hearts when we are presented with the call to
conversion.
Naaman in a sense makes us think of the Catechumens—pagans,
who have now come to believe in the one, true God. During Lent, they are
praying, and fasting, and preparing for their Easter Sacraments—to wash in the
saving waters. And they are doing so wholeheartedly.
Contrast that to the attitude of many life-long Catholics,
who fail to seek any real conversion for themselves during the Lenten season.
Many harden their hearts when their priests encourage them to go to confession,
practice mortification, pray more fervently.
These scriptures present us with a warning, don’t they: be
careful that familiarity and habit don’t
become obstacles to faith. The people of Nazareth thought they knew
Jesus already. Their self-certainty became not just an obstacle to faith, but
the genesis of hostility toward the Lord’s prophetic call to conversion.
We’re about halfway through the Lenten season, and we’re
challenged to ensure that we don’t fall into this same trap. To say: I know God
as well as I can, I already know what it means to be Christian, I am as
conformed to the Word of God as I possibly can be.
Like Naaman, the Lord will certainly invite us to encounter
him in some new way: new prayer, new penance, new act of charity. Let us
respond like him in humble faith for the glory of God and the salvation of
souls.
That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts
to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.
For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments,
that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving.
That we may generously respond to all those in need: the
sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence.
For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in
purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.
Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you
with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they
may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.
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