Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
CONSIDERATION
Christ comes to his father city of Nazareth, but his own fellow townspeople cast Him out of the city and even want to kill Him. No prophet, Jesus says, is accepted in his own father city. This is a very sharp rebuke and it is reinforced by the reference to Elijah and to Naaman, where salvation went out to the Gentiles. At the same time, we are approaching the great decision of Holy Week, but also the universal message of Christianity that is for all.
FIRST READING 2 Kings 5, 1-15a
There were many lepers in Israel; yet none of them was cleansed except the Syrian Naaman.
From the second Book of Kings
In those days, Naaman was
the army chief of the king of Aram,
very much seen by his lord and had great influence,
for through him God the Lord had brought results for Aram.
He was a great soldier,
but the man suffered from a skin disease.
Now Aramean gangs had once
undertaken a raid in Israel
and in the process captured a young girl;
who was now in the service of Naaman’s wife.
She said to her mistress :
“Oh, if only my lord could go to the prophet
who lives in Samaria,
he would help him get rid of his illness.”
Naaman went to tell his lord
what the girl from Israel had said.
Then the king of Aram said :
“Go there;
I will bring you a letter for the king of Israel.”
He went on his way, took ten talents of silver,
six thousand shekels of gold and ten festive robes,
and reported to the king of Israel with the letter.
It said :
With this letter I send my servant Naaman to you ;
I ask you to cure him of his skin disease.
As soon as the king of Israel had read the letter ,
he tore his clothes and said:
“Am I sometimes God, with power over life and death ,
that he sends someone to me
whom I must cure of his skin disease?
“Just watch my words :
“He is seeking to quarrel with me.”
When Elisha, the man of God,
heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes ,
he made the king ask :
“Why hast thou torn thy clothes?
Send him to me.
Then he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. ”
Then Naaman set out with his horses and chariot
and stopped before the house of Elisha.
The latter sent someone with the message :
Wash thyself seven times in the Jordan ;
then shall thy skin be restored to health and thou shalt be cleansed.
Then Naaman became angry and went away.
He said :
“I had thought :
He will come out and stand before me.
” Then he will call on the name of the Lord his God,
stroke the spot with his hand and take away the disease.
“Are the Abana and the Parpar, the rivers of Damascus,
not sometimes better than all the waters of Israel?
“Can I not wash in them to be cleansed?”
He turned and went away indignantly.
But his servants went to him and said :
“Father, supposing the prophet had commanded thee something difficult ,
then surely thou wouldst have done it?
“Then why not, now that he tells you that you need only wash yourself
to become clean again?”
Then he went to the Jordan and immersed himself seven times,
as the man of God had said.
His skin became like that of a small child again
and he was cleansed.
He returned to the man of God with all his retinue,
entered the house,
stood before him and said:
“Now I know that there is a god only in Israel ,
and nowhere else on earth.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 42(41), 2, 3, 43(42),3, 4
My soul thirsts for God, the God who lives,
Shall I ever reach Him and see his Face ?
As the deer seeks the streams,
so my spirit seeks Thee, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, the God who lives,
will I ever reach Him and see his Face?
Send me your Light, your support to guide me,
to lead me to your mountain and into your tent.
Then I will go to your altar, God who gives joy,
and praise you by the zither, God, my God.
VERS FOR THE GOSPEL John II, 25a and 26
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
he who believes in Me shall not die for ever.
GOSPEL Lk. 4:24-30
Like Elijah and Elisha, Jesus is not sent only to the Israelites.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
When Jesus came to Nazareth ,
he said to the people in the synagogue :
“Verily, I say unto you :
No prophet is accepted in his own father city.
“And it is true what I say to you :
Indeed, in the time of Elijah ,
when heaven remained closed for three years and six months
and a great famine broke out over all the land ,
there were many widows in Israel ;
yet Elijah was not sent to any of them
than to a widow at Sarepta, in the region of Sidon.
“And in the time of the prophet Elisha
there were many lepers in Israel ;
yet none of them was cleansed ,
except the Syrian Naaman.”
When they heard this
all who were in the synagogue became enraged.
They jumped up,
chased Him out of the city
and drove Him on
to the steep edge of the mountain on which their city was built,
to plunge Him there into the abyss.
But He passed in the midst of them and left.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
108. It is inconceivable to support a different cultural paradigm and use technology as a pure tool, because today the technocratic paradigm has become so dominant that it is difficult to renounce its means, and it is even more difficult to use it without being dominated by its logic. It has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle with ends that can be at least in part independent of technology, its costs and its globalising and massifying power. Indeed, technology tends to ensure that nothing remains outside its iron logic and “man, who is the protagonist in this, knows that in the final analysis it is neither about utility nor well-being, but domination; domination in the extreme sense of the word”. Therefore, “it seeks to understand the elements of nature and at the same time those of human existence”. It thus limits the individual’s decision-making capacity, most authentic freedom and space for alternative creativity.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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