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The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

In the first reading (2 Kings 5:14-17) and the Gospel (Luke 17:11-19), lepers are healed. In the former, the leper is a foreigner, an Assyrian general by the name of Naaman. In the latter, the leper is a Samaritan, a foreigner as well. Both obeyed the command of a man of God (Elisha and Jesus), which resulted in the full healing of their leprosy. Finally, both expressed their sincere gratitude generously. Naaman proclaimed: “I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD!” The Samaritan “returned, glorifying God in a loud voice, and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”

Leprosy was an illness that, according to the Mosaic Law, excluded its victim from the community (Cf. Lev 13:45-46). It served as a sign that points towards the spiritual leprosy that affects all of us, that of sin.

In our human nature, we are naturally estranged from God. We are spiritual lepers, foreigners to God and his covenant family. As was the case in ancient times, we cannot cure ourselves of our leprosy. The most we can do is cry out: “Jesus… Have pity on us!” (Lk 17:13)

Naaman plunged 7 times in the Jordan and so was healed of his leprosy. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Jesus and the Apostles used, the Greek verb translated as “plunged” is the same verb used in the Greek New Testament for baptism: baptizo. St. Irenaeus, the Second Century Bishop of Lyons in Gaul (today, France) makes the connection for us:

“And [Naaman] dipped himself … seven times in the Jordan. It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but this served as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions, being spiritually regenerated as newborn babes, even as the Lord has declared: ‘Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’” (Fragment, 34)

So it is in Holy Baptism that Jesus extends his healing mercy to every man, woman, and child, whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor. He then nourishes us with his sacrificial body and blood in the Holy Eucharist to forgive us of our lesser post-baptismal sins. If one sins grievously, there is Confession or Reconciliation. And when one is tremendously ill in body, the Anointing of the Sick, which is yet another means of forgiveness.

In the 7 Sacraments, “the LORD has revealed to the nations his saving power” (Ps 98:2). These powerful gifts demand faithfulness, for the rites are coupled with great responsibility. St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that we must persevere in the new life we’ve received: “if we persevere, we shall also reign with him, but if we deny him he will deny us” (2 Tim 2:12).