by Father James Rodriguez
One of the best things about being Catholic is the sacrament of reconciliation. If we are humble enough to seek forgiveness, God is loving enough to bestow it in abundance. Sometimes our fear of judgment can keep us away, making us forget that Jesus came to save us from the poisons that we so often choose. Sometimes a different fear takes hold.
We know that our sins are harmful, but we fear change. We can start to believe that it’ll be too difficult, or that we’re hypocrites if we fall back into the sin we just confessed, so we wonder why we bothered to go through with the painful exercise in the first place. In the sacrament, Jesus offers us healing and a challenge to change, as well as the grace we need to move forward and be free.
In today’s second reading, as we continue listening to the second letter to Timothy, St. Paul begins by writing about chains, indicating his imprisonment for the Gospel, willingly endured. There’s a beautiful irony here — since Paul’s heart is completely free.
He was united to God’s unchained Word, Jesus Christ, and so he knew that no persecution devised by man, nor hell itself, could compare to the providential love of the Father. It is for us to know this love for ourselves, so that when the moment comes to give witness, we will be faithful to the Lord who is so loyal to us. This fidelity, however, must be freely reciprocated. God never forces it on us, and so if we deny him, Paul says, he will deny us, not out of hateful rejection but love at its truest, a love that respects our freedom even to the point of being completely unrequited. This is the kind of God we have.
Naaman in today’s first reading came to meet this God, experiencing in his body what awaits our souls in every confession booth. The healing waters liberated his skin from leprosy, offering him not only health but a new life altogether. This experience changed him, which is to say that the healing, like beauty, is not only skin-deep. His instinct was to pay Elisha, but the prophet knew that God gave the gift, and he was only an instrument. Besides, how could one repay such a favor?
The only way to repay God is to change your life, to seek to live in him, to enjoy this free gift here and hereafter. St. Therese said it best: “I will be love.” The story of the grateful leper we meet in today’s Gospel mirrors Naaman and Timothy in many ways. Each of these men came to know the truth of God’s fatherly and healing love.
Each one had experienced a cleansing that was spiritual and physical, akin to baptism. Each, as St. Paul said, “died with him,” leaving their old selves behind to follow a new path marked by gratitude and perseverance. When Jesus asks the ex-leper about the other nine, he’s reminding us to keep our sight not only on the gift but also on its source — the generous hand of our mighty God — and to live in his grace.
We are all lepers, called to new life in Christ the Lord, from whom rivers of living water gush forth.
Father James Rodriguez is pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Rockaway Beach.