he first reading and the Gospel this Sunday speak of leprosy, a disease that was terrible and great in ancient times. St. Paul is encouraging St. Timothy to hold fast to the faith, because if we have died with Christ, we will also live and reign with Him. Let us spend a few moments on these and other themes.
If there were healings in the ancient world that were considered miraculous, exceptional, then these would be the healings of lepers. In our first reading we heard of the restoring to health of Naaman the Syrian: the prophet Elisha does not want anything in return for this healing, he does not accept Naaman’s present; this made me think of the words of the Gospel of Matthew, which say “You received without payment; give without payment” (Matthew 10:8). Naaman the Syrian is so cut to the heart by his miraculous healing, that he is willing even to change his worship, to change his religion, so to speak, to give praise and reverence to the God of Jacob. Naaman, a foreigner, was willing to worship Israel’s God after his healing. This was a sign of how terrible the disease really was.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, one of the Fathers of the Church, writes of lepers in one of his sermons: "Spread out before our eyes is a sight at once terrible and pitiful…men dead yet living; mutilated in many parts of their bodies…crying out, so as to be recognized, the name of a father, of a mother, a brother” (The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Gregory of Nazianzen, 1963, 47). Leprosy in the ancient world meant that one suffering from this illness was cast out, both physically and socially. Saint Gregory writes, “They are driven from the cities, shut out from the homes of men, from the market place, from the highways, from the gatherings of friends” (The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Gregory of Nazianzen, 1963, 48).
Jesus is the Master Physician, of those illnesses, of those conditions, that cannot heal themselves. The Gospels give us examples of a withered hand; leprosy; epilepsy; persistent bleeding. We can think of incurable illnesses in our day: cancer; ALS; chronic pain. The man whom Jesus heals in the Gospel is not only cured in a physical sense; his social status is restored; he once again becomes a member of society; his healing is not something that this man wants to keep for himself – this is why he comes back to Jesus, loudly praising God, and falls at the Lord’s feet.
Jesus is the divine physician. He heals in such a way, that the ill person receives not only his physical health, but is restored to community ties, to family ties, to social ties. And this healing brings joy. Joy, in turn, makes the witness that we give to Christ a little easier, a little more palatable, as we wait, along with St. Paul and St. Timothy, to be made co-sharers of Christ’s kingship and glory.
My brothers and sisters, in the civil calendar, on Monday, we observe Thanksgiving. For many – not for all, but for many – this weekend will be an occasion to gather with family, loved ones, and friends. As we carry the many preoccupations that we have – worries and anxieties about the world, the Church, our own personal trials – let us call upon Our Lady, who is the cause of our holy joy. Saint Pope Paul VI writes of her, in these words: “With Christ, [Mary] sums up in herself all joys; she lives the perfect joy promised to the Church: Mater plena sanctae laetitiae. And it is with good reason that her children on earth, turning to her who is the mother of hope and of grace, invoke her as the cause of their joy: Causa nostrae laetitiae” (St. Pope Paul VI, Gaudete in Domino, 1975, 4).
As we remember those who are ill, the lepers of our times, we call upon Christ the Divine Physician, with the help of Mary, cause of our joy. We entrust our health, both physical and spiritual, once again, to our Lord, through the prayers of Our Lady. Amen.
(Fr. Pawel Ratajczak, OMI, Oct. 13, 2019)