With Opened Bible
Your Faith has Saved You
"If you will not accept, 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." (2 Kings 5, 17)
The first reading and the Gospel for this Sunday reveal to us God's power in the face of illness. At a time when man had no idea what leprosy was or how to relieve those who suffered from it, the divine hand took the lead. First in the story of the Syrian general Naaman, then that of the ten lepers, of whom the only Samaritan returned to times (a perfect cure), Naaman emerged purified and healed. What appeared to be a simple bath exceeded the skill and knowledge of all the great physicians of his Assyrian empire. Thus, he decided to reject the gods of his fathers and worship and serve the God of Israel who had saved him. To do this, he asked permission to take sacks
filled with the earth of Israel with him to return home. Why the earth? Only the culture of that time can give us a proper explanation.
According to the beliefs of the desert peoples (Middle East), each city, each nation had its own tutelary God (or spirit) watching over them. In the book of Daniel, we find a spiritual struggle between the evil spirit overseeing the Persian kingdom and the Archangel Michael. (Daniel 10:13) The God or spirit worshipped by these peoples was trapped in that place. His territory, his place of action, was the city or country dedicated to him. It was because of this belief that the prophet Jonah decided to flee his country (where his God resided) to hide where he had no power, that is, another country. (Jonah 1:2-3)
General Naaman, who was a pagan, also believed in this folklore. Because of this belief, he allowed himself to take some of the land of Israel with him to go to his home in Assyria. To take land means to go with the God who resides there. For Assyria did not worship the true God, but idols. Today, the believer does not need a small plot of land to have God with them. Since our baptism, we carry God within us, for His Spirit has consecrated us as living temples, meaning that we are the dwelling place of God's Spirit. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16) In a world where the notion of God is politicized and misunderstood, Christians must be Temples, images of his divine presence.
