On Being Ungrateful 忘恩負義

Twenty Eighth Ordinary Sunday, Year C
Theme: On Being Ungrateful 忘恩負義

To make life easier to bear, we take a lot of things for granted. We unconsciously impose a lot of prejudgment, preconception and even prejudice on things we perceive. In short, we focus on a partial picture and are unwilling to pay extra attention to the whole context. For example, the first reading today tells nothing of what had happened before and focusses only on the gratitude of Naaman. In so doing, it reduces the weight of the message as a whole. Allow me to fill in the missing parts.

Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram and was a leper (2 Kings 5:1). Listening to the advice of the Israelite maidservant of his wife, Naaman sought the permission of his king to receive treatment in Israel. It shows the loyalty of Naaman to his lord. Therefore, later when he had been cured of his leprosy and had found his true Lord in Yahweh, his loyalty was unquestionable (5:17-18).
Back to the story. The king of Aram wrote the king of Israel a letter explaining the intention of the visit, “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy” (5:6). If you were the king of Israel, how would you interpret the intention conveyed in this letter? Here is the king’s reaction: “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 for me to cure him of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!’” (5:7) The narrative is truly engaging!

The king was right because in ancient Israel, leprosy was God’s punishment. Penicillin was not yet discovered and leprosy had no cure. Lepers were by default sinners and only God could forgive sins, thus only God could heal leprosy. Naturally, the king of Israel would think that the king of Aram was picking a fight! Even if the king of Israel was accurate in his strategical assessment, he was wrong in not seeking God’s help! Wasn’t he supposed to believe in God and to have access to God? “Where is your God?” (Psalms 42:4) It was Elisha, the man of God, who came forth instead of the king going forth to consult him (2 Kings 5:8)! We readers have unconsciously harboured a preconception that kings of Israel should believe in Yahweh. We are not immune from prejudgment ourselves.

Naaman was no better but we cannot blame him because he knew next to nothing about Yahweh. As an army officer, Naaman was expecting some difficult and even mythical challenges, fulfilling which he would prove himself worthy of the healing. Or the other way around, some magician from Israel would come in front of him to waive a magical wand to cure him. Instead, Elisha told him to go bathing seven times in River Jordan (5:10-11). Here’s Naaman’s reaction, “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?” (5:12) Had the expectations of Naaman not been reasonable? Naaman was truly a good Aramean soldier. He defended his national pride and dared to challenge Yahweh! If Yahweh were the Lord almighty, why were Yahweh unable to cleanse me with the waters of Damascus? In the end, Naaman’s servants were able to convince him and the story has a happy ending. It shows that Naaman was open-minded and well loved by his servants, including his wife’s maid! He truly deserved the cure.
As for me, I asked the school chaplain of my alma mater the same question before I was baptized, “Why was Jesus not a Chinese?” Of course at that time, my curious mind was not satisfied with the answer of this humble priest. From then, I was sent on an unending quest to seek the truth! I have to thank this humble priest. Had he been able to convince me of God’s wisdom and to show me God’s grand plans, I would not have known and loved Yahweh more by days! Thank you Fr. Tapella, PIME.

Take another example from the gospel reading today, the story of Jesus cleansing ten lepers. “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice ... He was a Samaritan. Jesus said … Ten were cleansed … Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:15-17) Naturally we will ask what the ethnicities of those ungrateful nine were. All of them were Jews, weren’t they?

At the moment, I prefer suspending judgment on two points. First of all, on what ground could we say the nine lepers were Jews? Read again more carefully. “As he (Jesus) continued his journey to Jerusalem, he travelled through Samaria and Galilee” (17:11). The location was in the north. There were a lot of Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles living together. Therefore, it is impossible to judge for sure what the ethnicities of the nine were. Furthermore, most Jews in the south would prefer not interacting with Samaritans and Gentiles unless it was unavoidable. Therefore, I think it would be safe to assume that the ten lepers were mostly Samaritans and Gentiles.
Secondly, were the nine lepers “ungrateful” when they did not return to glorify God? The gospel tells us that the lepers were following Jesus’ instruction to show themselves to priests (17:14). Perhaps they were obedient to Jesus’ instruction and; who can tell, perhaps they might come back later to give thanks after being inspected by priests. Similar to the behaviours of the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the behaviour of the nine lepers was less than ideal. But can we blame people who are obedient to the letters of commandments so much so that they do not show their compassion towards the needy, or in the case of the nine lepers, fail to show gratitude? Or the nine lepers did not have sufficient faith in Jesus’ command. They might think that inspection by the priests was a necessary condition for their cure to be permanent. They had suffered long enough and could not afford to relapse. Once more, we can’t blame people whose faith is weak, can we?

Or the nine lepers were not even aware that they had been cleansed. Perhaps they had contracted leprosy for such a long time that they had developed sufficiently strong defence mechanisms to protect their feelings. Their ego was no longer able to feel the pain and the shame! Their numbness had disabled their awareness of their cures! Woe to them who hide themselves too deeply in their comfort zones. Actually, most of us, in particular those who complain that God does not hear or answer their prayers, are on the same boat. In face of sufferings, we give up too easily without putting up even a fight! Yes, we need support from the Holy Spirit. But we also need to grow up and stand on our own feet, don’t we?

In this light, perhaps we may understand Jesus’ words better. “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?” (17:17) It is all too easy to conclude that the Lord was unhappy with their ingratitude. No. The Lord God respects our freedom. Lord Jesus even prayed on the cross for those who crucified Him! Thus, I believe that the merciful Lord worries about the harms ingratitude would inflict on those nine lepers! “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked die?” (Ezekiel 18:23). He prefers not calling them out of their tombs later.
Brethren! Let’s keep our hearts open and be grateful to God and to our fellow neighbour. We should be open-minded because the God we believe in is a God of surprises! He very much wants to scrape away our preconceptions and prejudices. We should be grateful because God has been showering us with graces we need but have not asked for. We should be grateful because God has given us opportunities to serve Him in the needy. We should be grateful for each and every new day because God has given us yet one more day to repent and to lay up treasures in heaven.
God bless!
2019 Reflection
Picture Credit: kershisnik.com