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Gospel Reflection for Monday, March 24, 2025
The Lack of Faith Among the Most Faithful
Naaman wanted something extraordinary to be asked of him… and yet, all he was told was to bathe seven times in a river! Did he want a miracle, or did he want to perform the miracle himself? If it were something extraordinary, he would have had to earn it. The problem is that God’s grace is free; it doesn’t wait for us to deserve it but for us to recognize it and be grateful for it.
Sometimes, we look for extraordinary things and fail to recognize the supremely extraordinary that is right beside us, which, because it’s so familiar, seems less “convincing.” No one is a prophet in their own land, Jesus says. In other words, what is so familiar and well-known (known even with its flaws and origins) can’t possibly be that good. The carpenter’s son, an ordinary man from the village, can’t be the Savior.
Many of us search outside for what we already have close by. Either we’re given an extraordinary sign (because we think we’re worth it), or it’s not enough. And we’re the faithful ones! And because we’re the faithful, we think we can earn grace through our own efforts. Jesus, however, speaks of the “outsiders” who did believe: the widow of Zarephath with her handful of flour and a little oil, and Naaman. Well, Naaman took a bit more convincing, but in the end, he found the humility not to try to perform the miracle himself by doing something astonishing and difficult.
Recognizing God’s presence in the simplest things can be hard… recognizing the goodness of those closest to us, the truth they might speak even when we don’t expect it or perhaps don’t want to believe it, is a great challenge. We aspire to great things. So, where does faith fit in? If believing requires seeing the fantastic and marvelous (which, of course, can also happen), some of us might spend our entire lives without faith, always trying to do fantastic and difficult things to earn grace and miracles. Faith is the belief in things unseen… and the smallest things, the ones right beside us, are seen, but often not recognized. Perhaps we need to practice believing in the prophet of our own land. Grace cannot be bought. It is grace itself that sometimes allows us to do extraordinary things. But not by our own power or effort. We must let God do the extraordinary and, humbly, give thanks.