Good morning. During Diaconal Formation, our Formation Directors often reminded us that the formation process is a marathon, not a sprint; we are in it for the long run. To use another analogy, diaconal formation is more of a slow cooker than a microwave; it takes time. This is the same with our spiritual and prayer life. Certainly, if God so desires, then our conversion could be like that of Saul. Jesus appeared to him in a dramatic way during his journey to Damascus. Saul’s conversion was immediate and he became Saint Paul, the apostle of Christ. However, our faith is a personal relationship with God who is love and who loves us and, like with all relationships, friendships, marriages, etc. that we experience in our lives, it takes time and effort to nurture and grow in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Relationships are built on trust. When the Prophet Elisha told Naaman, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean,” 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. . . (Naaman thought his healing would be immediate. . .) Could I not wash in [the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar] and be cleansed?” However, “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. . . Naaman [then] 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.” Naaman did not trust Elisha; however, he trusted his servants. Our God is worthy of our trust. When we are challenged in our trust of God, let us pray: “Jesus, I trust in you” over and over again.
Moreover, the Prophet Elisha did not ask Naaman to do anything extraordinary. All he had to do was take a plunge in the Jordan seven times and he was made clean. It is the same with our prayer life and spirituality. Prayer does not have to be something extraordinary because our Father in heaven knows our hearts and our desires before we even have to tell Him. However, God desires us to pray because He desires to have a relationship with us and, in the intimacy of that relationship, our Lord Jesus Christ writes His laws on our hearts, reveals to us His will and plan for us, and gives us the wisdom, strength, and courage to come and follow Him. It is us, who - like the people in the synagogue in Nazareth - oftentimes do not want to hear God’s will and plan for us so we rise up, drive him out of our homes and our lives, and hurl him to the curb so we can do whatever we want to do with our own lives.
As we continue in this season of Lent, let us practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving with patience and perseverance. While ordinary, what makes these extraordinary acts of faith is when we do them with love - love of God and love of neighbor, they help us to overcome sin and temptations, cleanse our soul, and grow in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of all, may prayer, fasting, and almsgiving soften our hearts to believe and pray with confidence: “Jesus, I trust in you.”
. . .
Gospel of the Day (Luke 4:24-30)
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
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.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
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.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
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