Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/101010.shtml

“O my God, I am so sorry for having offended you,
And I hate all my sins, because of Your just punishments,
But most of all because they offend You, my God,
Who are all-good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace,
To sin no more and avoid all near occasion of sin.”

Asking forgiveness for our sins is so cathartic. There is a reason while Jesus told us to confess to one another; we can ask forgiveness in our hearts, and pray for it out loud, but there is something in the way we communicate our own sinfulness to another person that is such a release. Saying our sins to someone else makes them real, and leaves you transparent, with no more secrets to hold. Not that anyone else but God forgives sins, but God in His wisdom knew that that we need each other, that any sacrament of the Church, any visible manifestation of God’s grace in the world, must also include the communion of saints. God sent his disciples out two by two to preach the Gospel, and the Church has been together ever since in every moment of our lives.

The readings today are about the joys and responsibilities of forgiveness. Though both Elisha and Jesus cure physical sickness, disease is always associated with sin in the Scripture. When Naaman is cured of his leprosy, he rejoices in God, who he recognizes by His power. He wants to give a gift to Elisha, but Elisha will not take credit for God’s power. For all glory, and all honor is for the Lord; Naaman realizes this, and takes the earth to always be in Israel the land of the one, true God.

Of the ten lepers, however, only one returns to offer God praise. Jesus sent them to the priests to be examined, that they might be let back into society. But only one remembers that it is not the priests, but God, who is the one to be remembered. Though God in each case uses people for healing and forgiveness, the lesson is that to Him alone is honor due.

As members of the Church we can forget God sometimes. We remember the rituals, and the motions, but lose God in the routine. Always, and unceasingly we must praise God. He has done wondrous deeds, and his right hand has won victory for him. And for us, He has won a victory over death that we share. Hallelujah!

We have forgiveness because we fall. We forget what Jesus taught us, what Paul reminds us: that “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” When we sin, when we deny him, we forfeit our salvation. But even when we are unfaithful Jesus is faithful, because he cannot deny himself who lives within us.

Jesus is in our hearts and walks beside us in victory. Let not sadness, nor anger turn us aside, nor lust or jealousy. But God may we be yours, remember you before us always, to sin no more and avoid all near occasion of sin. Thanks be to God.