The liturgy of this Monday of the Third Week of Lent, whose station in Rome is traditionally held at the Basilica of San Marco, is deeply embedded in the ancient catechumenal process of preparation for Holy Baptism, using the imagery of leprosy and purifying water to instruct the faithful. The choice of readings is not accidental; the Church presents the healing of Naaman the Syrian in the waters of the Jordan as a crystal-clear prefiguration of the sacrament that washes away the leprosy of original and actual sin. Historically, Lent was the time of scrutiny for the catechumens, and this liturgy taught them that salvation and purification do not come from worldly greatness, riches, or the majestic waters of the nations, but from humble obedience to the word of God through the simple means He instituted. By connecting the Old Testament narrative with the Gospel, where Christ Himself evokes the example of Naaman to rebuke the unbelief of His fellow citizens, the Church demonstrates that divine grace breaks the boundaries of the chosen people to reach all Gentiles who, recognizing their own spiritual misery, submit with faith to the sacramental economy. Thus, today's commemoration is an earnest call to interior conversion, warning that familiarity with sacred things, if devoid of true faith, can lead to spiritual blindness, while humble, foreign obedience attracts the definitive healing of the soul.
Introit (Ps 55:11-12; 2)
In Deo laudabo verbum in Domino laudabo sermonem in Deo speravi non timebo quid faciat mihi homo. Miserere mei Deus quoniam conculcavit me homo tota die impugnans tribulavit me.
In God will I praise the word, in the Lord will I praise His speech. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me. Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot; all the day long he hath afflicted me fighting against me.
Epistle (4 Kings 5:1-15)
Naaman princeps militiae regis Syriae erat vir magnus apud dominum suum et honoratus per illum enim dedit Dominus salutem Syriae erat autem vir fortis et dives sed leprosus. Porro de Syria egressi fuerant latrunculi et captivam duxerant de terra Israel puellam parvulam quae erat in obsequio uxoris Naaman quae ait ad dominam suam Utinam fuisset dominus meus ad prophetam qui est in Samaria profecto curasset eum a lepra quam habet. Ingressus est itaque Naaman ad dominum suum et nuntiavit ei dicens Sic et sic locuta est puella de terra Israel. Dixitque ei rex Syriae Vade et mittam litteras ad regem Israel. Qui cum profectus esset et tulisset secum decem talenta argenti et sex millia aureos et decem mutatoria vestimentorum detulit litteras ad regem Israel in haec verba Cum acceperis epistolam hanc scito quod miserim ad te Naaman servum meum ut cures eum a lepra sua. Cumque legisset rex Israel litteras scidit vestimenta sua et ait Numquid deus ego sum ut occidere possim et vivificare quia iste misit ad me ut curem hominem a lepra sua animadvertite et videte quod occasiones quaerat adversum me. Quod cum audisset Eliseus vir Dei scidisse videlicet regem Israel vestimenta sua misit ad eum dicens Quare scidisti vestimenta tua veniat ad me et sciat esse prophetam in Israel. Venit ergo Naaman cum equis et curribus et stetit ad ostium domus Elisei misitque ad eum Eliseus nuntium dicens Vade et lavare septies in Jordane et recipiet sanitatem caro tua atque mundaberis. Iratus Naaman recedebat dicens Putabam quod egrederetur ad me et stans invocaret nomen Domini Dei sui et tangeret manu sua locum leprae et curaret me. Numquid non meliores sunt Abana et Pharphar fluvii Damasci omnibus aquis Israel ut laver in eis et munder. Cum ergo vertisset se et abiret indignans accesserunt ad eum servi sui et locuti sunt ei Pater etsi rem grandem dixisset tibi propheta certe facere debueras quanto magis quia nunc dixit tibi Lavare et mundaberis. Descendit et lavit in Jordane septies juxta sermonem viri Dei et restituta est caro ejus sicut caro pueri parvuli et mundatus est. Reversusque ad virum Dei cum universo comitatu suo venit et stetit coram eo et ait Vere scio quod non sit alius deus in universa terra nisi tantum in Israel.
In those days, Naaman, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria. And he was a valiant man and rich, but a leper. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman's wife. And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria; he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath. Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus hath the maid from the land of Israel spoken. And the king of Syria said to him: Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, and brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman my servant, that thou mayest heal him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me. And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus. And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean. Naaman was angry and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, his servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean? Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel.
Evangelho (Lk 4:23-30)
At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: Doubtless you will say to me this similitude: Physician, heal thyself: as great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum, do also here in thy own country. And he said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth. And to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger. And they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they brought him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.
💧 THE HUMILITY THAT PURIFIES AND THE GRACE THAT TRANSCENDS
The confident cry of the Introit, "In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me," finds its perfect realization in the majestic and divine attitude of Christ in today's Gospel. Confronted with the unbelief and fury of the Nazarenes, Jesus neither retreats nor attempts to prove His divinity through the prodigies demanded by human pride. As St. Thomas Aquinas elucidates (Summa Theologica, Part III, q. 27, a. 1), the rejection of Christ in His homeland reflects the profound inability of the flesh to recognize the divinity hidden by the veil of humility; the Son of God did not come to satisfy earthly curiosity, but to teach a faith that supplants mere external signs. This resistance to the truth, which Origen (Homily 33 on Luke) identifies as the hardness of hearts inflamed by a selfish jealousy at the universality of grace, culminates in the attempted assassination. However, by passing unharmed through the midst of the angry mob, Jesus manifests the imperturbable power of the One who transcends wickedness. Man could do Him no harm before His hour had struck, revealing that true faith requires a humble submission to the unfathomable designs of God, which often contradict our expectations and prejudices.
This same proud resistance is the initial obstacle in the healing of Naaman, narrated in the Epistle, which echoes the plea of the Introit: "Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot." The true enemy oppressing the Syrian general was not the opposing armies, for he was a great warrior, but the leprosy of his own presumption. By expecting a spectacular cure, suited to his worldly status, Naaman almost despised the purifying simplicity of the Jordan River, judging the waters of Damascus superior to those of Israel. Divine pedagogy, however, operates in hiddenness and smallness. It is through the advice of humble servants that the general is led to obedience. Leprosy, a figure of sin, can only be washed away when the soul strips itself of its earthly titles and descends, seven times, into the waters of penance. The redeeming grace of God acts freely and sovereignly, reaching the foreigner who bows to the voice of the prophet, while leaving untouched those who trust in their own greatness.
The synthesis of these two liturgical realities reveals the core of the mystery of salvation: divine grace demands docility of heart. Just as Naaman had to abandon his arrogance to be purified and restored to the innocence of a "little child," the true healing of our soul demands that we stop dictating to God how He should act in our lives. The Nazarenes demanded a spectacle and remained in their spiritual leprosy; the Syrian general accepted the simplicity of the plunge and found salvation. When we pray "in the Lord will I praise His speech," we are invited to trust fully in the ordinary and sacramental means that the Church offers us. The serene passing of Jesus through His tormentors teaches us that true peace, which makes us invulnerable to the assaults of the world, dwells only in those who, purified in the Jordan of penance, recognize, like Naaman, that there is no other God but the One who saves through the path of the Cross and humility.