Homily: October 9, 2022, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “Please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD."

When Naaman was first told to wash himself in the waters of the Jordan, he felt ridiculed, he did not believe. But after he did and was healed, he declared that he would no longer worship any other god except the God of Israel.

What a beautiful story of conversion. But why did he want to take back two mule-loads of earth?

He was healed after washing in the river water. Shouldn’t he take back some of that water instead of soil from the earth?

Well, if he believed the waters healed him, then yes, he would have taken tonnes of the water. But Naaman recognised that the source of healing was the God of Israel. He knew he was healed by God, not the water.

In ancient times, it was believed that gods could only be worshipped on the soil of their land. Thus, Naaman asked for the soil of Israel because he wanted to worship the God of Israel back home.

Many people travel to the holy land and pilgrimage sites, and they bring back water from Lourdes, soil from holy land, seashells from Santiago de Compostela etc.

Not only Christians do that, people from other religions too, have the same idea. If you go to Indian grocery stores, you can see bottles of water collected from the River Ganges on sale.

Do we really think these items have the power to help us?

In the gospel Jesus met ten lepers, probably nine were Jews and one, Samaritan. Jesus told them to show themselves to the priests, and they went because they believed Jesus, they were eager to re-enter the synagogue, community, society and the world. While on the way, they were miraculously healed. They would know without a doubt that Jesus was the one who healed them, but why did they not show any gratitude to Him except the Samaritan?

The Samaritan came back to Jesus because he recognised the source of healing. He knew God healed him and he had found the true God, not in the synagogue but in the person of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “your faith has saved you.”

Ten were healed but one was saved. Do we want only healing for our ailments or do we want salvation for our souls? We must believe, we must have faith, we must recognise God in our life. When we recognise God’s hands in everything good, we will see how generously He is pouring graces into our life, we will be grateful like Naaman and the Samaritan leper.

We are now in the presence of God, let us praise, thank and worship Him, the God of Israel.

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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