Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Everybody, that's the conclusion of any journey of healing. Healing from physical trouble, spiritual trouble, psychological trouble. The goal, having passed through humility, opposition both outside and in, the goal is the right praise of the living God.”

“Friends, the goal of all spiritual transformation is right worship. All sin born of pride is a falling away from right worship. Therefore, the goal of any spiritual healing process is to learn again to worship.”

“Does Jesus have lordship over every room in your house?...Jesus the Lord, which is an implication of his resurrection from the dead, must dominate your life.”

“boy, did Paul know the power of the gospel he preached. May we know it now 2,000 years later and may we with that same courage and joyfulness and panache proclaim it to our world”

“For me, healing is a process, a journey of reintegration. It often requires conscious movement.”

“In Luke’s gospel, as Jesus makes his way slowly to Jerusalem, he is pointing us towards Jerusalem and with every step nudging us towards a journey of our own. He would have us encounter those who for us are “other”, but in whom, we must learn to recognise God’s Spirit, alive and active.”

“The others had physical healing, as did the Samaritan. But the Samaritan had the fullness of the inner healing which is salvation.”

“There's a difference between receiving a gift and recognizing it and being able to give glory to God and to give thanks for that gift received”

“Naaman is a type of the believer in Christ. We need to humble ourselves to wash in the Jordan—that is, to receive baptism—in order to be healed of our spiritual leprosy.”

“I suspect most every reader has a memory of a time when God provided at a time of intense need. Perhaps today it would be good to recall that time and move from gratitude to thanksgiving to praise to worship to conversion.”

“Persons are gifts of God’s mediating power. Through the little girl and Elisha, Naaman was healed. We must learn to value others and never look down on them because of whatever we think we are.”

“We need to reflect on how blessed we have been. We should never deny that life has its difficulties that challenge us. However, when we put all that happens into perspective, we are moved with much gratitude. We appreciate that the Spirit of our loving God has never been absent.”

“If life was all rainbows and butterflies all the time – that ugly thing called pride takes hold. This is our fallen condition.”

“His flesh becomes like a little child, but the Hebrew words used here, are the same words as those used to describe the little slave girl. She is the real hero of the story.”

“Our being chosen is thus not dependent on our fidelity or worthiness but on God’s faithful love for Man”

“Now God’s people are no longer defined by soil or by race, but by sharing the thankfulness of the Risen Son of God”

“the healing was not the end in itself as good as that was for him. What was the real goal here? Was to move to the praise of God. Having been cured, having had the door opened through his own suffering and humility he finally comes to the right praise of God”

“Faith is a key element of being part of salvation. Salvation means being aware of our God who has set us free. And a response to salvation is giving thanks to God and giving praise.”

“His suffering, his embarrassment, his great thorn in the flesh was healed precisely through the quelling of his pride and the submission of his will to God's will. Easy? Hardly...but the only way to spiritual healing is through humility.”

“Friends, you never know where the truth is going to come from. You never know who's going to be the bearer of God's word to you and if you're too uppity or too sophisticated to listen you might miss the message.”