GOD'S PRESENCE ACCESSIBLE BY FAITH

MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

2 Kings 5:1-15; Ps 42:2-3,42:3-4; Lk 4:24-30

Faith makes the Difference

By revealing his most holy name, God has given corresponding faith to his people to believe in his sacred name and thereby gain access to the Promised Land. The land was never the important thing, but the revelation of God to the people he called to occupy the land. Faith made the children of Israel, whom God delivered from the house of bondage in Egypt, gain access and possess the land flowing with milk and honey. The latter is the real presence of God granted to them by the revelation of the most holy name of God. Thus, Saint Paul reminded us in his first letter to the Corinthians yesterday that many failed to enter the Promised Land because they did not believe in God. The author of the letter to the Hebrews informs us that those who entered the land of Canaan did not enter the Promised Land because they failed to enter God’s rest.

The story of Naaman, the Syrian leper, substantiates the scriptural position that only faith admits into the land flowing with milk and honey. Faith in the most holy name of God makes the spiritual resource of God’s real presence available for our healing and edification. A little slave girl in the household of Naaman, the Syrian Army Commander, referred to the rich resource of God’s presence in Israel in these words. “If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy.” The reference was to the prophet of God in Samaria, who is the custodian of the word of God and speaks it in the name of God. That the rich spiritual resources of God’s holy name and presence are accessible only to faith was proved by the behaviour of the king of Israel, who tore his garment thinking that he to cure the foreign leper. The prophet Elisha called him to order by reminding him of God’s presence in Israel, which he and many others had forgotten. “When Elisha heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king, ‘Why did you tear your garments? Let him come to me, and he will find there is a prophet in Israel.’” Since the prophet speaks for God, the presence of the prophet is a sacrament of God’s presence among his people. A good number of people of Israel remained unaware of the presence of God among them despite their living in the Promised Land of Canaan. They disregarded the prophets among them because they do not believe in God’s presence among them.

Our Lord referred to the people’s lack of faith in God’s word and presence in the gospel. God constituted the people of Israel as his people consecrated to him based on the covenant he made with their ancestors and with them on Sinai. They lost access to the rich spiritual resources the covenant provided them due to their lack of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to enter the covenant relationship. One must believe in the revealed and sacred name of God. Our Lord reprimanded them in these words: “There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.” The people understood the implication of these words, for they were furious after hearing the reprimand. God’s revelation of himself to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, is the greatest gift we have received. Faith is indispensable to access the divine resources among us. It contains spiritual food and drink, which we must access in faith. With the psalmist, we must enter the Promised Land and desire regularly to eat of the Lord. “My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life; when can I enter and see the face of God?”

Let us pray: May your unfailing compassion, O Lord, cleanse and protect your Church, and, since without you she cannot stand secure, may she be always governed by your grace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.