FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
MONDAY 3 OF LENT
21 March 2022
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.” “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” 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. (2 Kings 5: 5-6/10/13-14)
How shall I live this Word? 
Naaman with leprosy is us when we have a suffering and we think that to overcome it we need to know great things (ten talents of silver, six thousand gold shekels and ten sets of clothes) while the Lord tells us, through Elisha, to bathe seven sometimes, the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, anger, envy, pride), wet ourselves in the sense of recognizing them and immersing ourselves in the mercy of the Lord. We often resist this invitation because it is tiring to enter our depths and we consider it insufficient (my father, if the prophet had ordered you a great thing, would you not have done it?) But if we can do it, we will be purified, suffering will lighten everything that amplifies it and we will face it with new energies (his body became like a child’s body). It is an explicit invitation to interior silence, in the presence of the Lord, and consequent confession (blessed in the Jordan) where all of God’s mercy is expressed.
Lord, help me to recognize my vices, my leprosy.
The Voice of Pope Francis, General Audience 13 November 2013
Think about this: when we go to confess our weaknesses, our sins, we go to ask for Jesus’ forgiveness, but we also go to renew Baptism with this forgiveness. And this is beautiful, it is like celebrating the day of Baptism in every Confession. Therefore, Confession is not a sitting in a torture room, but a celebration. Confession is for the baptized! To keep the white robe of our Christian dignity clean!”
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Living Scripture 
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