Lent leads to baptism

2nd book of Kings 5:1-15a. 
Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. 
Now the Arameans had captured from the land of Israel in a raid a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman's wife. 
"If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria," she said to her mistress, "he would cure him of his leprosy." 
Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. 
"Go," said the king of Aram. "I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. 
To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 
When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: "Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!" 
When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: "Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel." 
Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. 
The prophet sent him the message: "Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean." 
But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. 
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?" With this, he turned about in anger and left. 
But his servants came up and reasoned with him. "My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said." 
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 
He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant." 



Psalms 42(41):2-3.43(42):3-4. 
As the hind longs for the running waters, 
so my soul longs for you, O God. 
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. 
When shall I go and behold the face of God? 

Send forth your light and your fidelity; 
they shall lead me on 
And bring me to your holy mountain, 
to your dwelling place.

Then will I go in to the altar of God, 
the God of my gladness and joy; 
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp, 
O God, my God! 




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 4:24-30. 
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." 
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 
They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. 
But he passed through the midst of them and went away. 

Lent leads to baptism

After this you drew nearer, you saw the font itself, and you saw the bishop presiding over it. The thought which came into the mind of Naaman the Syrian, I am certain, must have come into yours: for though he was afterwards cleansed, he began by doubting... And if anyone should perhaps be thinking of saying: 'Is that all?', I say, indeed it is all. There truly is all, where there is all innocence, all devotion, all grace, all sanctification. You saw all you could see with the eyes of the body...; what is unseen is much greater than what is seen... for the things that are unseen are eternal.... Consider baptism, for example. What could be more extraordinary than this, that the Jewish people passed through the midst of the sea? And yet all the Jews who made that passage died in the desert. But he who passes through the waters of this font - that is, from earthly things to heavenly - he who passes through these waters does not die: he rises again.

As I was saying, Naaman was a leper. The moment Naaman came, the prophet told him: 'Go down to the river Jordan; bathe there and you will be cured.' Then he began to reflect within himself and to say: 'Is that all? I come from Syria to the land of the Jews and someone says to me: "Go to the Jordan, bathe there and you will be cured." As though there were not better rivers in my own country!' Then his servants said to him: 'Lord, why not do what the prophet says? Do it and see what happens.' Then he went to the Jordan, bathed there and came out cured.

What is the meaning of this? You saw the water, but not all waters have a curative power: only that water has it which has the grace of Christ. There is a difference between the matter and the consecration, between the action and its effect. The action belongs to the water, its effect to the Holy Spirit. The water does not heal unless the Spirit descends and consecrates the water. So you have read that when our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the rite of baptism, he came to John and John said to him: 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' (Mt 3,14)... Christ went down into the water and it was John who was the minister and baptized him. And behold, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove... Why did Christ come down first and the Holy Spirit afterwards?... Why was this? It was in order that the Lord Jesus might not appear to have need of this mystery of sanctification, but that he himself might sanctify, and that the Spirit might also sanctify.