Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a mighty warrior, but suffered from leprosy. His armies had captured a young girl from Israel, who became the servant of Naaman's wife. The girl told the wife that Naaman could be healed by a great prophet of G_d in Israel. Aram's king favored Naaman and sent him to Israel with gold and silver to pay for the cure. Elisha did not come out of his house to meet the warrior, but sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." Naaman became angry, saying, "I thought that for me, he would surely come out, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his G_d, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!"
Naaman went on a tirade because he thought he was special. Clothed in his ego, the warrior said that if washing were all that was necessary, then the waters of his country would be better than all the waters of Israel. He turned and went away in a rage. Finally, some of his servants convinced Naaman, that if Elisha had given him an expensive, complicated solution to his disease, that he would have done it. So, why not try the simple solution that the prophet offered? Naaman followed the directions of Elisha and in this baptism was made whole and clean, a new infancy, a new life. Good health requires responsibility, and wanting G_d's healing requires allowing the Creator to heal on His terms and timeline. "For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves."
Jesus had simplicity in his dictates "Do you want to be made well?" "You shall love the LORD your G_d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Faith and love are the tools for wellness, and are all that he requires. Jesus' desires for us, though simple and supportive, are something that we, like Naaman, tend to make more complicated, and difficult to practice. Jesus is selective with His chosen, but calls out to all; the unfit are made fit by Divine directions. "There is one Body and one spirit; There is one hope in G_d's call to us; One Lord, one Faith, One Baptism; One G_d and Father of all."
Isaiah, in looking for the restoration of Israel, imagines the nation of G_d as a simple, loving mother, "that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom." Only an infant feeds this way, only the newly baptized. Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."
Discipleship is a Divine regression, a return to the water of birth, to the nourishment of a mother's love, and to a few initial, small, steps taken in trust. "Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!'" "Say to them, 'The kingdom has come near to you'" Like the seventy sent out to announce G_d's kingdom and his peace, Jesus also sends us to the places and persons that he intended to teach. Go with the trust of a child, go armed with love. Care for the sick, announce the nearness of G_d's reign. Though you watch demons fall, remain humble. Remember that you are alive, you are fed, you are sent, and your name is written in heaven. You are merely a child, but in the simple and supportive words of St. Paul, "G_d chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, G_d chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."
Pax,
jbt
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