Monday of the Third Week of Lent
March 28, 2011
To see the readings, click here:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/032811.shtml
The reading from 2nd Kings always interests me. In it, a servant girl in another land tells an army commander who suffered from leprosy that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him. He goes to his king, who sends him off to Israel to be healed, and eventually is.
But it is the "eventually" part that contains all the interesting stuff. First of all, Naaman (the commander) goes to the king of Israel with a letter from his king. The king of Israel reads the letter and thinks he has been set up, because after all how could he heal a leper?
Isn't that just classic human behavior? I mean, he jumped right to malice. Didn't assume there must be some kind of mistake here, didn't ask questions about why this guy would think he could do this. No, he jumps straight to assuming he has been set up. We humans are so quick to assume the worst!
But the prophet Elisha hears about it and sends word that the king should send Naaman to him. When Naaman arrives, Elisha sends word that Naaman should wash seven times in the Jordan and he will be healed. So of course, Naaman runs to the river, washes seven times, and everything is beautiful, right? Well, not so much. No, Naaman takes offense. He somehow sees this as a slight to the rivers in his land. He got angry and left. Again, never asking for clarification, never pausing to consider why this was asked or even why it bothered him. We humans are so hot-headed!
Only then did Naaman's servants convince him that it was worth trying what this prophet of Israel said. He did, he was cured, and all ended well. So well, in fact, that Naaman is mentioned in the time of Jesus in the Luke reading as an example of faith. Which he was -- eventually.
Surely one of the lessons for today that we can take from this reading is just not to assume the worst of people. I see this many times every day. Most often, the hurtful word, the slight, the failure to give credit where it is due, are the results of simple oversight or misunderstanding, not of malice. We could all save ourselves a lot of grief if we just went to the positive first. Of course, a corollary to this is that we treat the negative like it is newsworthy and the positive like it isn't. Kind of inconsistent, really, if we act on the assumption that everything is negative.
I work at the Girl Scouts, and I overheard the manager of the cookie sale program on the phone one day this week. She had received a call from someone who had found an envelope full of cookie money under his doormat. It was marked as such, with the name to whom it was intended to go, but this guy didn't know the person. The cookie manager had realized they were on the same street, so someone must have just gotten the house number wrong. She was calling to get the accidental recipient of the money and the person to whom it was owed together. And I thought of all the news stories that run during cookie season about people who cheat Girl Scouts, or about Girl Scout leaders who abscond with the money, or Girl Scouts who get busted for selling without a solicitor's license, and all that negative stuff. But no one will hear a news story about this guy who sought out the Girl Scout council because he had an envelope full of cookie money that he wanted to get in the right hands.
Father, thank you for always being there to bring us back from the dark side. Help us to keep our hearts open, that we might see life through eyes focused on the potential for good instead of the potential for evil. Please walk with us through these remaining weeks of Lent and help us to find the transformation you want for us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
