Breaking the Word

3^rdweek in Lent, Monday – 13^th March 2023 – 2 Kings 5,1-15; Luke 4,24-30

Gratitudinal Attitude

The readings are tied together by the story of Naaman the Aramean leper. The first reading is the account of the healing of Naaman. In the Gospel, Jesus visits His “hometown” of Nazareth and mentions Naaman as an example of how foreigners are more open to the healing power of God than the local people. The healing story of Naaman presents how God works in both mysterious and ordinary ways and how Naaman, the gentile, submits to the command of Yahweh through his prophet. As a conclusion, after being cured, Naaman goes back in gratitude to Elisha and says, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.” It is clear, therefore, that the true healer is not Elisha, nor the muddy waters of the Jordan river but God himself. And the healing is the result not of the washing in the river, but in Naaman’s eventual submission and obedience to God’s spokesman. At the same time, God’s blessings are only to be found in total submission to his will and his commands, may be through a great prophet or an ordinary slave girl or a servant. Here, Naaman is put forward as a contrast to a disobedient Israel, which wavered in its divided allegiance to Yahweh and to Baal. It was exactly the lack of Naaman’s attitude and gratitude on the part of the people of Nazareth that prevented Jesus from healing the people of his own town.

3^rd Sunday of Lent – 12^th March 2023 – John 4,5-42

Movements of Encounter

The much-loved story of the Samaritan woman at the well is the second encounter with Jesus in the Gospel of John. The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman can be read in three movements. The first movement is all about water. Jesus’ thirst, then the ensuing conversation with the woman, a bit cautious of him and his boundary-crossing, and then the living water gushing up to eternal life that he will offer her and for which she will ask. The second movement is the conversation about the woman’s private life, which is the moment on which the encounter takes another turn. Jesus tells her everything she has ever done and she sees him differently as a prophet and clarifies with a series of questions about worship. The third movement is the conversation about worship in Spirit and truth, which leads her to wonder about the Messiah and Jesus reveals to her that it is He.

This encounter begins with the social boundary-crossing of Jesus with a woman and a Samaritan, both disfavoured groups in His day, and culminates with the conversion of her village which happened unpredictably. While she responded by evangelizing in Jesus’ name, the villagers proclaimed Him as “the Saviour of the world.” Jesus’ time in Samaria closes with villagers believing in Jesus first upon the woman’s witness, then because of Jesus’ own word. John’s purpose of revealing “who Jesus is?” makes progression in the individual witness and punctuates with the group believing that calls for personalized experience.