Imagine asking a stranger for an extravagant gift. And the stranger agrees! But you receive it in a crumpled brown paper bag. It makes you upset. So upset that you don’t even open it. Instead, you throw it away because you expected better packaging. Then you complain that you got nothing.

It sounds ridiculous, but aren’t we sometimes like this when reality doesn’t meet our expectations? Naaman expected to be cured. He was offered the gift of healing. But he was so fixated that the miracle was happening not as he had expected. We risk missing out on blessings when we become too rigid. When we expect everything to go our way. When we act as if we know better than the Giver.

Pray, ask, and then wait with joyful anticipation. If what you ask is for your good, it will come. Let God surprise you with the shape and form of the gift. He is a creative Giver. Don’t throw it away.

Kitty Dulay-Ferreria (kittydulay@yahoo.com)

reflect

What gift or opportunity might be disguised as a “bad” situation or outcome in your life now?

Father, help me see all the ways in which You bless me. Fill me with gratitude for Your generosity. Amen.

St. Frances of Rome, religious, pray for us.

Why does God heal a gentile? Many in Israel are suffering from leprosy at the time, but God chooses to heal Naaman. I believe God wants us to know that He sees all people in the same light—He has created us and desires to redeem us all. Let us be confident that the Gospel of salvation is the truth for all people, not just a select few.

¹ 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. ² Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife. ³ “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴ Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵ “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. ⁶ 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.” ⁷ 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!” ⁸ 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.” ⁹ Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ The prophet sent him the message: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ 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.” ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4

R: Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

² As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. (R) ³ Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? (R) ^43:3 Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling-place. (R) ⁴ 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! (R)

Gospel | Luke 4:24-30

Jesus says that unless we are willing to accept the Gospel given to us by God, it will be next to impossible for salvation to have an enduring effect in our lives. God has given us free will. Receiving the Gospel has real meaning only if we accept it, as an act of our own will. We cannot benefit from the blessings of the Gospel if we do not accept its truth and live it out to the best of our ability.

Gospel Acclamation

I hope in the Lord, I trust in his word; with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.

²⁴ Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. ²⁷ 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.” ²⁸ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. ²⁹ 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. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went away. 

Reflect

“Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to heaven.” (St. Camillus de Lellis)

Read the Bible in one year! Read REVELATION 15 - 18 today.

I was ordained priest in the age of Pope Francis, and that shaped my priesthood in a way I still can’t fully put into words. It is because of him that I became unafraid to step beyond traditional walls and say yes to a different kind of priesthood: not only offering the sacraments at the altar, but meeting people in unexpected places—serving coffee, sharing simple conversations, creating spaces of encounter outside church doors. It was Pope Francis who gave me the courage to believe that Christ walks the streets, sits at our tables, and waits at the counter just as much as He waits in the sanctuary.

He taught us that grace often comes in ways we do not expect—and that if we cling too tightly to our ideas of what is “proper” or “worthy,” we may miss Christ standing right in front of us.

Today’s Gospel feels like an echo of that same truth. In Nazareth, Jesus confronted the very people who should have recognized Him. They expected someone grander, who would fit their image of a prophet. They expected miracles done on their terms. When Jesus pointed out that God’s blessings had often gone to outsiders—to the widow in Zarephath, to Naaman the Syrian—their pride could not bear it. They turned on Him. They tried to drive Him out.

Today’s Gospel challenges us again: Are we willing to recognize Christ when He comes in ways that unsettle us? Are we willing to let go of our image of how God should act and to receive Him as He is?

Pope Francis lived that invitation boldly. He taught us by his life that Christ is always passing by—often in places and people the world considers too ordinary to matter. And the only question is: will we see Him?

Grace does not always come dressed in grandeur—it always comes filled with love. 

Fr. Albert Garong, SSP

reflection question

Where might you be missing the grace God is offering you—because it comes in a form you did not expect?

Lord, open my heart to recognize You, even when You come in ways that offend my pride or challenge my expectations. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _____________________________________