THE LIVING WATER

According to Rabbi Marc Gellman author of the book, “Does God have a big toe?’ Moses is a patient man.  When he saw the burning bush other shepherds were there too and also saw it but did not wait long enough to notice what Moses saw since they were all too preoccupied and had other things to do. Moses was also busy but he patiently waited that’s why he saw the burning bush phenomenon which the others failed to see. He therefore said that it pays to be patient. A patient man submits to God’s timeframe, respects the timeframe of others and reacts peacefully in times of delay. On the other hand an impatient man has little regard for timeframes other than his own and is troubled over delays. He further explained by citing the gardener in the parable of the fig tree. He said that the gardener exhibited a fair amount of patience and tolerance for the fig tree because he was willing to buy time for it to bear fruit and not cut it down. In today’s 1st reading, Naaman was tested for his patience and tolerance. He traveled a long way just to reach Elisha and had to be tolerant of the Jewish influence and tradition before he got healed. God calls us to follow instructions specifically and take action even though we are not comfortable doing it.  We should develop in us this kind of attitude and follow God’s instructions no "ifs" and "buts". God does not exempt anyone but will really go out of the ordinary just to make Himself known to everyone and save us. In the case of Naaman, God made use of an Israelite girl who was captured and became the slave of Naaman's wife. This little girl paved the way for the healing despite her being captured and turning into a slave. Instead of becoming bitter and defeated she was still able to proclaim and spread the power of the one true God. Isn't it challenging that we, too are given the same opportunity in our daily lives to still go on proclaiming and sharing to others the goodness of God despite the odds and difficulties that are before us. Leprosy is a sickness that speaks to us of sin. Elisha a prophet from the Old Testament speaks to us of the necessity of the sacrament of baptism. These words of Elisha, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” caused Naaman to be cured of leprosy as he went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. It was followed by his profession of faith when he returned to Elisha and on his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” This is a prefigurement of the sacrament of baptism as the church invites us to wash and be clean and the soul of a person becomes like an innocent child when plunged into the waters of baptism and asked to profess our faith. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1257 it is stated, “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. (Jn 3:5) He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. (Mt 28:19-20)  Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. (Mk 16:16) The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.” The Lord Himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation as he spoke to Nicodemus in John 3. The Church does not neglect this mission and it is imperative for us that we proclaim the gospel to all the nations not with a sense of indifference. We are not asked to force the gospel, the Church has given a command to go and teach about Jesus and have a deeper relationship with Him. The Jordan river is beautiful because this is the water that Jesus stepped into, He has sanctified the water. The Jordan is beautiful because of our faith. We recognize it because of Jesus’ encounter with the water.  As we can see in the 1^st reading that Naaman refused at first and expected to do something extraordinary. This is how we are, how foolish we can be at times. If he was asked to do something extraordinary he would have followed right away and yet when asked to do something that seem so plain and simple, he refused.  Jesus came to us a simple man and did great things. The act of washing is very common. For whoever is brought to the fount of baptism, seems so plain but can do something tremendous to our souls. Through the union of Christ and His church there is power in the pond of baptism. One of the effects of baptism is described in what happened to Naaman. Leprosy can cause the flesh to rot and stink. Our soul rots and stink of hell and we can’t free ourselves of that unless we are baptized. It is dependent on the power of God, this need for cleansing. Jesus says come to this pond and become cleansed and by faith we know what happens to our soul. The flesh of a little child is soft and clean. Everybody loves a baby and this grown man (Naaman) is made that way, the same thing happens to our soul, it is made brand new. As CCC, 1213 states, “Holy Baptism is the basis of all Christian life. Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water and in the word." Amen. Hallelujah!

2 Kings 5:1-15

Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. Now the Arameans had captured from the land of Israel in a raid a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife. “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. “Go,” said the king of Aram. “I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed, “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king, “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. The prophet sent him the message, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?” With this, he turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

Only Jesus can make us whole and satisfy our soul. We should take note of the fact that we are not just physical human beings. The moment we leave and pass away from this world we cease to be in our physical state but our souls live on. If at this present moment we attend to the needs of our physical bodies we should also do the same for our souls which will pass from this world to life eternal. There is an end to all that we hold and see right now since we are just passing by. Our true and everlasting home belongs with God. If our physical bodies need nourishment in this life in order to live so does our souls. When we are in a state wherein we feel so deprived and famished, a helping hand can go a long way. We may not totally understand the concept of purgatory as a whole but this is what we are supposed to be to our brothers and sisters who long to see God face to face but is yet to happen. We, the Church Militant active and living can serve for them as a beaming light in the darkness and a guide to the right path. Let us not neglect to pray for the faithful departed souls of our loved ones, family and friends. Have you heard of this very vital information about survival. Our bodies can go without food for a long time but not without water. We can all die of dehydration faster than starvation. Let us make sure we don't dehydrate our souls to the point of death and exhaustion. Just like Naaman the Syrian who plunged into the water of the Jordan River and was cleansed, we should also drink from the river of God's living water and live. It always make the crowd or audience laugh whenever asked who want to go to heaven and everybody started raising their hands but if the question is changed to who want to die everybody started putting down their hands. The truth is we can only see God face to face when we die if we are worthy to stand before Him. And we have all become worthy because of Jesus' sacrifice but can we handle the truth. People who are on the verge of dying and have come to accept their situation and longed only to be with God are the luckiest people since they have found the ultimate satisfaction and consolation to all their longings. Considering that they died in the grace of God, which made me think of people who died and happened to have a lot of unfinished businesses here in this world. We may have a lot of questions about such things but we must believe that God is in control and in charge. He will take care of whatever we left behind. According to Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, a Jesuit priest and author of the book, "Holy Longing", man's desire is so intense that he called it a raging inferno. It's unstoppable and powerful that it creates holes in our souls. We can attempt in our human nature to fill in these holes but we still end up with a hollow feeling. These holes come in different shapes. We may be trying to fit in the wrong shape into these holes. These holes can only be filled in by God. Only God our Creator knows best and He is the only one who can determine which will fit into our soul. We all have our desires and longing in life but if we insist on doing it our way and not follow the pattern and shape that God has given us then we will never be truly happy.  Just like the deer in today's psalm, only God can quench the thirst in our souls. May all our basic instincts be rooted from our longing for God. Only in God can we find true satisfaction. In Him alone is the thirst of our soul quenched. If we hear the song composed from the psalm reading for today we may imagine and picture a deer panting and drinking water in the stream. This kind of longing and thirst we have all experienced one way or another in our lifetime whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. We may search long and hard but find none that can fully satisfy if we fail to recognize the rivers of Living Water which only God can give and provide. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4

R: Athirst is my soul for the living God.

1 [2] As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. 2 [3] Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and be hold the face of God? (R) 43: 3 Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling-place. (R) 4 Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy; then will I give you thanks upon the harp, O God, my God!

We may all have experienced rejection at one time in our life. It's very painful and difficult as it is to be rejected by someone but what's even worse is the fact that the people whom we expect to back us up are the ones who turn their backs on us. We must not despair if this happens for even Jesus experienced the same thing. All we have to do is follow the example of Jesus in continuing the work that God has given us to do and not lose hope. What Jesus was offering to the people in Nazareth was not wasted for it was extended to the people in Capernaum (town in Galilee) and to the whole region. We all have our own Nazareths and we must not despair over it rather we must look forward to reaching out to the Galilees of our lives and move on to the next level. We all have other aspects and regions in our life that we also need to pay attention to and develop. We just have to put our trust in the Lord who is able. Everything will come to pass and God's word will always carry out its mission and not go back to Him without accomplishing its purpose. Today's gospel brings back my focus on what I have been doing since I came here to the US. I can still very clearly remember that day of OCT 7, 2007 when I received God's Word in Habakkuk 2:2-3 which is: Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. 

From then on I've taken it upon myself to write down daily reflections based on the assigned bible readings as my personal mission for Jesus. During the course of my writing I have inevitably included in my journal people whom I have encountered and inspired and touched my life in a special way which all just happened in a way that the scriptures unfold and reveal our participation in each and every message being conveyed and sent to us in the daily readings. Since then these reflections have amounted to quite a lot already and during my free time, I had been bent on compiling and organizing all the daily reflections that I have written since OCT 2007. I have made an index and table of contents for it which I have just finished and updated. It has become easier and readily available for quick reference. Several years ago the foreword in Companion for today’s gospel and the reflection of Fr. Steve Tynan in Sabbath have encouraged me to continue with this mission. In the foreword it says:

Jesus does not “pull any punches here.” He says it simply as He sees it. This is the best way to make the truth known. Jesus needs to let people know what His mission is from the beginning so that they cannot accuse Him of deception later on. Whether people understand Him or not is not the issue at the moment. What is critical is that the Gospel is proclaimed in its fullness and that everybody has the opportunity to respond to it in its fullness as well.

In Sabbath, I partly quote Fr. Steve:

...Jesus was never interested in any attention the people wanted to give Him — His sole concern was to live and proclaim the Gospel as best as He could.

It is this example that we must seek to follow. Otherwise, we will become distracted from the things that should be our focus and we will fail to achieve what we could have achieved, if only we had been wholly obedient to God.Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

 I am fully aware of my shortcomings and imperfection in spreading the Word of God but it is in what Fr. Steve said above that gave me the courage and strength to keep on going. It is in this very personal and significant events and circumstances that I encounter daily whether big or small that we have truly been part of the Word, yes, the Word that is made flesh. Jesus is indeed in each one of us. God gives me a reason to always have something to write about and the presence of each one of us in this present life have given me a lot of reasons to continue writing. Everybody has been a source of inspiration and God’s instrument. We should all find ourselves believing the same thing. God believes in us. We may sometimes come to a point in our lives when we have to act out of faith despite the uncertainty of our situation. We may also suffer the disapproval, ridicule and objection of the majority who questions the logic of our actions and doubts our motivations. I am sure that the widow in Zarephath hesitated if not faltered for a moment when asked to give away hers and her son's last meal in the time of famine just as Naaman the Syrian objected and grumbled at first when they were told of what to do by these 2 great prophets of their time. If we are to look closely at the qualifications of these 2 characters from today's gospel we would find that they both do not belong to the chosen race of God, the Israelites. Their only qualification was that they followed and obeyed what they were told to do.  You know why? God does not call the qualified rather He qualifies the called. We are all called by God. Our response depends on how we feel and think about it. They (Naaman and the widow) felt that persistent and undying spark of love that does not lie when God called and spoke to them in their hearts. Always take the opportunity to recognize Jesus in every situation of our life lest we lose the chance and fail to recognize it. God will not come uninvited. He will enter only if we open up the doors of our hearts and welcome Him. He will never force Himself on anyone. He is the Perfect Gentleman. He respects our longings and desires that sometimes without realizing it we've completely missed our chances and lost what truly matters and counts. Let us not end up rejecting Jesus in our hearts and missing the only Blessing that really matters because we are too preoccupied with other small blessings. Jesus is already with us but we sometimes drive Him away with our indifferences, doubts, fears, unbelief, and ignorance of the true wisdom of God. Let us pray fervently to God that He will always be with us to stay. Amen. Hallelujah!

 Luke 4:24-30

And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25 Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. 26 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury...