Homily: 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Friends, our scriptures today remind us of the importance of the “obedience of faith” and that our response to God’s grace in our lives must be worship of him filled with praise and thanksgiving. These are fundamental behaviors for us as disciples. Therefore, it is important for us to review what they mean for us so as to reflect on whether we are truly living these behaviors in our lives. First, the obedience of faith.
Obedience demands of us multiple things, not least of which is a careful listening to the one who gives instruction. True obedience always has an element of charity towards the one giving the instruction, so a “leaning in” so as to hear the instruction well so that it might be carried out is key to obedience. The other, often less pleasing aspect of obedience is submission. No matter who the person is giving the instruction, the one responding in obedience must always decide to submit his/her own will to the one giving instruction in order to be obedient. Any failure to submit is to be, quite literally, disobedient.
Often, when we obey an instruction, we already have some sense that following the instruction will produce the desired result. Being obedient to the instructions in a repair manual is easy because we already have a sense that, by following them, we will achieve the desired result: repairing the broken item. This is not the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith is when we trust the instructor and respond in obedience, even when it isn’t clear that following the instructions will produce the desired result. Here, we put our faith in the one giving the instruction, trusting that he/she is leading us to the desired result. Yes, I know, this is all too theoretical. However, I think that the story from our first reading today will help to illustrate this perfectly.
Now, what we didn’t hear in the reading was the entire backstory of Naaman, the Syrian, which will serve to show us how this is an example of the obedience of faith. Naaman was a high-ranking official in the Syrian army, which had been winning many victories against the Israelite armies of both the northern and southern kingdoms. Naaman, however, became afflicted with leprosy (a generic name given to various skin diseases). After the doctors in Syria were unable to relieve him of the illness, a young Jewish girl, who had been taken captive and forced to serve in Naaman’s household, urged Naaman to go to Elisha, the Israelite prophet, believing he would heal Naaman.
Naaman agreed to go and did so with all the pomp and circumstance of a state official arriving in a foreign country. When he came to the house of Elisha, he expected to be received with generous hospitality and greeted by Elisha directly. Instead, Elisha stayed in his house and sent instructions to Naaman through his servant (a butler, essentially): “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan River and you will be healed.” Naaman was offended: both by the seeming lack of respect shown to a man of his status as well as by the instruction that was so simplistic that it felt like Elisha was dismissing him out of hand. (Most of us would have a hard time following the instructions of a doctor who gave us a prescription without taking a moment to interview us or examine our affliction, no?) Thus, Naaman resolved to ignore Elisha and return to Syria.
Naaman’s servants pleaded with him, however, to submit to the instruction, arguing that, if Elisha had prescribed something extraordinary, he would have done it. Thus, all the more reason to follow the simple instruction, which he could be certain to fulfill. As we heard in the reading, Naaman was persuaded and submitted himself to do as Elisha prescribed. Having done so, he was healed.
By the obedience of faith, Naaman was healed. Having listened to the instructions from Elisha, Naaman was skeptical. Nevertheless he (eventually) submitted himself to it, even though he had no reason to be assured that the instruction would cure his disease. Having faithfully submitted himself in obedience, however, he received the gift of healing for which he was looking (the “seven” times being an adequate number for him to prove that he had truly submitted to the instruction).
Then, in the Gospel reading, we see a similar theme play out. The ten men afflicted with leprosy cry out to Jesus and beg him to do something for them. They obviously knew of Jesus and of what he was capable, otherwise they wouldn’t have cried out to him. Thus, they were already disposed to the obedience of faith. In their eyes, the first miracle must have been that Jesus stopped and paid attention to them. Just about everyone else in society would have done everything to ignore them and move away from them. But Jesus sees them and responds. Then, he instructs them and they respond. Notice, he gave no assurance of healing. He didn’t say, “Go, because I will heal you on the way”. Rather, he said, “Go”. Their faith in Jesus moved them to obedience; and by their obedience, they received the healing for which they were looking.
Too often, I think, we want some sense of assurance that, if we respond to the ways God is asking us to live out our discipleship–or to receive grace for a particular problem we are hoping he will resolve–it will work out as we want before we take action. The obedience of faith, however, demands that we respond even if we cannot see how (or whether) the action we take will result in the desired outcome. The call for each of us is to respond, however, trusting that the one who is giving the instruction is trustworthy to provide the desired result. This is the faith of Psalm 23, no? “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want…” In praying this, we are saying, “I trust the Lord to guide me in the right way and that he will provide for all my needs, even if I cannot see how.” This is the obedience of faith.
What follows from this obedience is the freedom to respond to the needs of those around us. If we live in trust that God will provide for all of our needs, then we are free to respond generously to the ways God is prompting us to respond to the needs we encounter in others. We don’t have to guard our own resources because we believe that God will not fail to care for us. Thus, we can be the instruments through which God proves his steadfast love to others who are in need, even while we open ourselves to allow God to show us how he will provide for our own needs. In many ways, this is the thrust of Pope Leo’s first Apostolic Exhortation Dilexit te (On the Love for the Poor): that, giving God the obedience of faith, we might see and respond to the those suffering poverty around us; not only out of a sense of duty, but also in gratitude for the innumerable ways that God has provided for us in our own lives.
Thus, the other point for our reflection today: our grateful response. Naaman, having submitted to the instruction and received the healing for which he was looking, returned to give thanks to Elisha and to God. The Samaritan leper, having recognized the healing for which he was looking, returned to Jesus to give thanks. When, through the obedience of faith (and even outside of it) we receive some grace that we sought from God, the proper response is always gratitude: the humble acknowledgement that the grace was pure gift, something that we could not have obtained on our own, which turns us to worship–the offering of praise and thanksgiving to God from whom all blessings flow.
So fundamental to the right ordering of our lives is this worship, that God insists that we offer it once every week (at a minimum) here in the Mass. What we do (or, at least, what we are called to do) every time we celebrate the Mass is offer our praise and thanksgiving to God for the ways he has worked in and around us as we respond in the obedience of faith. We unite this to the sacrifice of his Son, which is the only sacrifice truly acceptable to him. In doing so, we demonstrate our love and gratitude, and acknowledge once again our belief that “the Lord is my shepherd, nothing shall I want.”
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, as we celebrate this Mass today, let us renew our trust in God–and thus our commitment to the obedience of faith–so that we might receive all that God wishes to give us, while also being ready to respond humbly and generously to the needs of those around us.
Given at St. Joseph Parish: Delphi, IN - October 11th, 2025
Given at St. Joseph Parish: Rochester, IN - October 12th, 2025
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