OXYGEN

08 Mar – Memorial for St John of God, Religious

Juan (1495-1550) grew up working as a shepherd in the Castile region of Spain. He led a wild and misspent youth, travelling over much of Europe and north Africa as a soldier in the army of Charles V, and a mercenary. He fought through a brief period of insanity. He peddled religious books and pictures in Gibraltar, though without any religious conviction himself.

In his 40s, he received a vision of the Infant Jesus who called him “John of God”. To make up for the misery he had caused as a soldier, he left the military, rented a house in Granada, Spain, and began caring for the sick, poor, homeless and unwanted. He gave what he had, begged for those who couldn’t, carried those who could not move on their own, and converted both his patients and those who saw him work with them.

He was a friend of St. John of Avila, on whom he tried to model his life. John founded the Order of Charity and the Order of Hospitallers of St. John of God.

- Patron Saint Index
_____________________

2 Kings 5:1-15

Naaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master’s respect and favour, since through him the Lord had granted victory to the Aramaeans. But the man was a leper. Now on one of their raids, the Aramaeans had carried off from the land of Israel a little girl who had become a servant of Naaman’s wife. ‘She said to her mistress, ‘If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy.’ Naaman went and told his master. ‘This and this’ he reported ‘is what the girl from the land of Israel said.’ ‘Go by all means,’ said the king of Aram ‘I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’ So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten festal robes. He presented the letter to the king of Israel. It read: ‘With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his leprosy.’ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his garments. ‘Am I a god to give death and life,’ he said ‘that he sends a man to me and asks me to cure him of his leprosy? Listen to this, and take note of it and see how he intends to pick a quarrel with me.’

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.’ So Naaman came with his team and chariot and drew up at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent him a messenger to say, ‘Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will become clean once more.’ But Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, ‘Here was I thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the leprous part. Surely Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and become clean?’ And he turned round and went off in a rage. But his servants approached him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, when he says to you, “Bathe, and you will become clean.”’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.

Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and stood before him. ‘Now I know’ he said ‘that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.’
_____________________

Luke 4:24-30

Jesus came to Nazara and spoke to the people in the synagogue: ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

‘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.’

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
_____________________

… if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?

One of my students once remarked to me that it was very difficult for him to accept correction by his peers or even superiors. He always felt that his way of doing things were correct and that any other person who sought to correct him must either want to pick a fight with him or is plain wrong. I affirmed him by telling him that recognising this flaw is a step in the right direction and that having identified it, he now needs to be conscious of this flaw when he gets into a similar situation in the future.

We see this in the first reading of today when Namaan the army commander refused to do what the prophet Elisha asked him to do. It was a simple task but the Syrian commander interpreted this as an affront to his position and dignity to wash in the river Jordan. It took his servants whom had the better sense to ask him to reconsider his action. Sometimes we progress to such a high level in society due to a confluence of various factors that we forget that we started from somewhere lower. We also forget that all forms of criticisms towards us are learning actions in themselves.

The Gospel of today reminds me that we need to separate the criticism from the person. It could be the person whom we hold the greatest disdain that makes a remark that hurts us and we harbour a grudge against this person for a long time. However, I implore you to separate the person from the remark. Take some time to reflect upon the statement and consider whether the statement is justified? Do not dismiss the remark in an outright manner and hold your rebuttal; instead think whether you are engaging in the behaviour like the Jews in Nazara today who refused to listen to Jesus’ words.

The unifying thread the links the two readings today is the lack of humility demonstrated by Namaan the Syrian and the Jews in Nazara which resulted in them engaging in behaviour that we know was wrong. The Responsorial Psalm provides us with the solution to this problem and that is to have a constant thirst for God, the God of our life. By realising that we have to rely totally on him in our life and through a daily reflection of our actions where we become more conscious of our limitations, we learn to surrender our will and make this Lenten season a joyful and meaningful period.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Nicholas Chia)
_____________________

Prayer: Lord, we pray for the courage to surrender our willfulness to You.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to those who bear insults patiently.

Upcoming Readings:
Tue, 09 Mar – Daniel 3:25.34-43; Matthew 18:21-35; Memorial for St Frances of Rome, Religious
Wed, 10 Mar – Deuteronomy 4:1.5-9; Matthew 5:17-19
Thu, 11 Mar – Jeremiah 7:23-28; Luke 11;14-23
Fri, 12 Mar – Hosea 14:2-10; Mark 12:28-34
Sat, 13 Mar – Hosea 6:1-6; Luke 18:9-14
Sun, 14 Mar – Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; John 9:1-41; Fourth Sunday of Lent