From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

The message of today’s firs reading taken from1 2 Kgs 5:14-17 is similar to that of last Sunday. Like Habakkuk, Prophet Elisha is proving to Naaman that it is the living God that cures and not idol, ‘god’ made by human beings.

Immediately Elisha prayed to God that Naaman’s leprosy be cured the miracle happened. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean of his leprosy. Naaman returned God and said: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel”.

Elisha and Elijah were God’s messengers during this time of apostasy and idolatry. Elijah was the prophet to the northern kingdom. He confronted King Ahab and Jezebel, the high priestess of Baal worship. He told them that God’s judgment was on them for corrupting Israel and leading them astray. And that it would not rain until they turned back to God.

We may infer from this verse that Elisha also suffered previous illnesses, from which he recovered. This in itself was a miracle – we should not take healing even from colds and chills for granted! Until the time of Elisha there was no such thing as someone who was sick being healed – until Elisha came and begged for mercy and was healed.

Second reading is taken from 2 Tm 2:8-13. Paul encourages Timothy to endure suffering. Some of us don’t believe we have to suffer that is why sometimes we runaway from God’s divine intervention and look for shortcuts where our problems can be solved quickly.

That is why those who think that faith in Jesus will exempt them from suffering are in for a shock. God called you to endure suffering because Christ suffered for you. He left you an example so that you could follow in his footsteps (1 Peter 2:21).

Job suffered a great deal but he never cursed God’ name or accuse God of injustice but rather seeks an explanation or an account of what he did wrong. Even when his wife (Job 2:9) suggested that Job should curse God and die, Job endured suffering.

Scripture exhorts us to endure suffering and hardships in life. If we are going to live in faithfulness to what we believe, then we will experience some rejections, some difficulties, some pressure, and even some persecution. That is the Christian life.

For if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

Though Timothy was Paul’s trusted co-worker, he had weaknesses that Paul was trying to help him overcome. One of these was to shy away from suffering and hardship.

The Gospel is taken from Lk 17:11-19. As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.

And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

Leprosy is not only a terrible disease that causes a person’s body parts to slowly rot away, lepers in Jesus’ day were outcasts of society, and no one wanted to be near them. Lepers often lose their fingers and toes, and eventually the disease kills them. It is very contagious and is spread by touch.

What we learn from these ten lepers is that their faith was evident by their calling out to Jesus to be healed. For that reason, when Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, they obeyed.

Under the Law of Moses, before a cleansed leper could begin normal interaction with non-leprous people, he had to be examined by a priest and declared cleansed of his leprosy. That is what Jesus was requiring the ten lepers to do, and so they started off on about 30-mile journey to Jerusalem.

They must have believed that they would be better by the time they got to the priests, and as they acted on their faith, they were! For this reason, we can conclude that all ten were healed through their faith in Jesus.

One leper who returned to give Jesus thanks was a Samaritan. His faith was actually more impressive than the faith of the other nine. This happened because Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with one another in Jesus’ time.

He would have been tempted to doubt the wisdom of obeying Jesus’ instructions to show himself to the priests. He knew the priests would probably have nothing to do with him. But he obeyed Jesus anyway and was healed.

This pleased our Lord and led Him to remark on the ingratitude of the others. “Were not all ten made whole, where are the other nine?”

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002