{"id":915,"date":"2019-10-10T11:55:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T11:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2019-10-10T11:55:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T11:55:10","slug":"13-october-2019-c-twenty-eighth-sunday-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=915","title":{"rendered":"13 October 2019 (C) TWENTY-Eighth Sunday of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A. The Bible as\nGuide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B. Reflection & Dialogue: <\/strong>God\u2019s word can not\nbe fettered; it lasts forever. Thankfulness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. The Bible as\nGuide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\nReading <\/em>(2 Kings 5:14-17). Naaman returned to Elisha and acknowledged\nthe Lord. <\/em> This little gem is chosen\nto go with the Gospel reading. It is best understood in its fuller biblical\ncontext (2 Kings 5:1-19). Naaman was a very highly respected commander of the\narmy of the Syrian king. In one of their forays into Israel <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Syrians took captive a young\nJewish girl. She became a servant to Naaman\u2019s wife but remained faithful to her\nfaith in the Lord God of Israel.\nShe told her mistress that the prophet Elisha could cure Naaman of his leprosy,\nand Naaman approached the king who sent a delegation to the king of Israel, with a\nformal letter and large sums of money to cure Naaman of his leprosy. The king\ngot alarmed, believing that it was a ruse to start a Syrian invasion. Elisha\nintervenes and asks that Naaman come to himself, which Naaman does with his\nhorses and chariots. Elisha tells him to wash seven times i<\/em>n the Jordan river, something\nwhich Naaman spurns and goes off in a rage. His servants prevail on him to do\nas Elisha had said, which he does and in healed. This leads his conversion to\nthe God of Israel as the one true God. He will no longer worship the god of\nSyria Hadad Rimmon. At that time, however, worship of gods was connected with\nsoil. On the soil of Syria\nonly Hadad could be worshipped, as the Lord God was on the soil of Israel. Elisha\nrefuses any recompense for the miracle, and Naaman requests that he be given a\ngood amount of the earth (soil) of Israel, so that he can worship the God\nof Israel, not Hadad, in his home country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial Psalm <\/em>(Psalm 97[98]). The Lord has shown his salvation to the\nnations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Reading <\/em>(2 Timothy 2:8-13). If we hold firm, then we shall reign with\nChrist. <\/em>As elsewhere in these Pastoral Letters Paul is recalling for\nTimothy certain headings of Christian doctrine that will be of importance for\nhim, and probably warns his of certain individuals or groups that are denying\nthem or calling them into doubt. First is the resurrection of Christ, and his\ntrue humanity, born from the race of David. His Gospel preaching has been a\ncause of persecution for Paul. Timothy must remember the fundamental truth:\n\u201cThe word of God (the Lectionary and the Jerusalem Bible have \u201cGod\u2019s news\u201d.) is\nnot fettered. They cannot chain up God\u2019s news. Paul had said something similar\nin Philippians 1:12-14. Paul may have been thinking of Isaiah 55:11: the word\nthat goes forth from God\u2019s mouth does not return top him empty, but shall\naccomplish that which God purposes and prosper in the thing for which he sent\nit. With this in mind Paul bears the consequemces of his mission, whose aim is\nto bring the salvation that is in Christ and the eternal glory that come with\nit. The text ends with five metrical lines, which may have been part of an\nearly Christian hymn, with fundamental truths on God\u2019s fidelity, introduced by\na heading we have considered already in the reading for the twenty-fourth\nSunday (1 Timothy 1:15)..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel<\/em> (Luke 17:11-19. No one came back to give praise to God, except\nthis foreigner.<\/em> Reflection on this reading will be aided by attention to\nthree elements connected with it, that is its setting in the general plan of\nLuke\u2019s gospel, the mention of lepers and of the border between Samaria\nand Galilee. It is set in what is regarded as\nJesus\u2019 Journey to Jerusalem\nin Luke 9:51-56. Realizing that his death and glorification were near, Jesus\nresolutely set his face on Jerusalem,\nwhere he would be crucified and glorified, and where the Holy Spirit would come\non his followers, to begin the universal Christian mission. Together with this\nwe have the relation of Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans, lying in Samaria between Jewish Galilee and Judea,\nwere not recognized by the Jews as genuinely Jewish. There was deep bitterness\nbetween them. They could make Galileans on their way to Jerusalem unwelcome (Luke 9:51-56; read on\n13th Sunday). Jesus countered any racial prejudice in the parable of the Good\nSamaritan (Luke 10:22-37, read on 15th<\/sup> Sunday), as the Samaritan was\nthe one (not the Jewish priest or Levite) who understood the command to love\none\u2019s neighbour. Then there is the question of lepers and leprosy. The leprosy\nmentioned in both the Old and New Testaments is not the disease as known today.\nThe term designates rather some form of skin disease, believed contagious. The\nsufferer was barred from liturgical services, and social life, until declared\ncured (\u201cclean\u201d) by a Temple\npriest.This said, we may return to\ntoday\u2019s Gospel reading. The scene is situated on the border between Samaria and Galilee. Luke\nis not interested in geography and does not tell us on which side of the border\nthe incident occurred. The plague of leprosy did not spare Jew or Samaritan.\nBeing lepers they did not, could not, come near to Jesus. Jesus tells them to\nshow themselves to the priests, with implicit promise of healing, which\noccurred on their way. The only one of the ten to return to thank Jesus was a\nSamaritan. To thank meant to praise God for what he had done through Jesus.\nJesus has again passed beyond the ethnic to recognize the Samaritan\u2019s faith.\nAfter the resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the border between Samaria and Galilee,\nbetween Samaritan and Jew, between Jew and Gentile, will be no more. The\ndisciples will be witnesses to Jesus and the gospel in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of\nthe earth (Acts 1:8). This reading also shows the importance of thankfulness to\nGod, and to one another. As we pray in the weekly Common Preface IV of the\nMass: \u201cFor, although you (Lord) have no need of our praise, yet our\nthanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your\ngreatness but profit us for salvation, through Christ our Lord\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B. Reflection &\nDialogue<\/strong>: God\u2019s word can not be fettered; it lasts forever. Thankfulness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing to the Romans Paul says:\n\u201cWhatever was written (in the Scriptures) in former days was written for our\ninstruction, so that by the steadfastness and by the encouragement of the\nscriptures we might have hope\u201d (Romans 15:4). These words encourage us to\nreflect weekly on the Sunday readings. We can recall a few of these today. This\nhas already been partly done above when explaining the readings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The word of God lasts forever<\/em>. We have an example of this in the\nfirst reading. The activity of Elisha can be dated to about 850 BC. It provides\nan example of a prophet of Israel\nshowing kindness and healing to a foreigner, in act to a commanded to the army\nof the enemy of his people. It was an indication of a message to the Gentiles\nyet to come. Its message was not lost. Jesus recalled it to his fellow citizens\nof Nazareth, indicating the spread of the Gospel\nbeyond Israel\n(Luke 5:27). The word of the Lord can not be fettered. It has a force all its\nown. This thought should bring steadfastness in the faith and encouragement in\nour own day. God\u2019s word, God\u2019s dealing with humanity, has a lone history before\nour day, and will have its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Thankfulness<\/em>.\nThe explanation of the Gospel reading has already attended to this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings) B. Reflection & Dialogue: God\u2019s word can not be fettered; it lasts forever. Thankfulness. A. The Bible as Guide … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-readings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}