Dear brothers and sisters,

Wow, what a storm we had last week. Please know that our Bishop gave a dispensation from our Sunday obligation last week, so we don’t have to worry if we missed Mass. We were only able to have the 10:00am, 12:00pm and 5:30pm Masses on Sunday. Keep in mind it is always better to error on the side of caution when it comes to Mass during horrible weather. We want everyone to be safe. Also, the intentions from the Masses we didn’t have will be made up over the next few weeks.

Throughout the Gospel accounts Jesus praised individuals who put their faith in God as they remembered the great and wonderful deeds He had performed time and again. Jesus even praised outsiders non‐Jews and pagans from other lands who had heard about the mighty deeds of the God of Israel. One example Jesus mentioned was Naaman the pagan army commander from Syria who was afflicted with leprosy a debilitating skin disease that slowly ate away the flesh (2 Kings 5:1‐15). Naaman’s slave girl was a young Jewish woman who had faith in God and compassion for Naaman her master. She urged him to seek healing from Elisha, the great prophet of Israel. When Naaman went to the land of Israel to seek a cure for his leprosy, the prophet Elisha instructed him to bathe seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman was indignant at first, but then repented and followed the prophet’s instructions. In doing so he was immediately restored in body and spirit.

What is the significance of Naaman’s healing for us? Ephrem the Syrian (306‐373 AD), an early Christian teacher from Edessa, tells us that Naaman’s miraculous healing at the River Jordan, prefigures the mystery of the healing which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord Jesus through the regenerating waters of baptism and renewal in the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). “Therefore Naaman was sent to the Jordan as to the remedy capable to heal a human being. Indeed, sin is the leprosy of the soul, which is not perceived by the senses, but intelligence has the proof of it, and human nature must be delivered from this disease by Christ’s power which is hidden in baptism. It was necessary that Naaman, in order to be purified from two diseases, that of the soul and that of the body, might represent in his own person the purification of all the nations through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism.” (commentary ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5.10‐1)

Peace,

Fr. Mike