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The Ten Lepers Cleansed

The Ten Lepers Cleansed (Lk.17:11-19)

The better part of our lives as adults consists of duties. We have little choice: we have hardly finished our work, or when the next duty is already awaiting us. Many people do little more than move from one duty to another all their lives. And when a person scrupulously fulfills all those duties and tasks he is praised for his diligence.

No matter how diligent such a person is, he misses something that is indispensable. We only become truly human when we add to all we MUST do something we WANT to do, without anyone telling us to do it.

When the ten leprous men had been cleansed of their illness by Jesus, they were told to go and show themselves to the priests. That was the commandment in the law.

But one of them goes beyond the duty and does something of his own accord: he comes back to give thanks. No one has told him to do so. And it is certainly not just a formality he observes, for he falls prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanks Him from the bottom of his heart. You can’t bow down deeper than that. You can’t be more convincing in your thankfulness.

All who fulfill their duty are cleansed. But are they also healed? Only this one human being, who gives thanks with heart and soul, hears the redeeming words from Jesus: “Your faith has made you well.” (RSV—Greek sesōken, saved)

And we, when we receive His medicine that makes whole, the Sacrament, are we then able to give thanks to Him with heart and soul?

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, September 13, 2020

September 17, 2020/2 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

Sending the Seventy

Sending the Seventy (Lk.10:1-20)

During His life on earth, Christ often sent helpers ahead to each town and place where He would Himself come. They are called disciples (literally followers) and apostles (from apostello, to send off).

Why was that necessary?

Would it not have been much simpler if He had done everything by Himself? Everything these helpers did—healing, driving out demons, making peace—He also did Himself, and He did it very differently from his followers. Only of Christ was it said that He healed with power, with exousia. The disciples could not work without His help. But He—why would He not be able to help without helpers?

The Bible is full of the longing for the Almighty, for the moment when Christ shows His full powers. In the Apocalypse this moment is proclaimed by a mighty voice in heaven that calls: “Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.” (Rev.12:10). In chapter 19:6 this empowerment is confirmed with the words: “Alleluia: For the Lord God omnipotent has become king.” Up to that moment kingship had been in other hands. One day the prince of this world will have to yield the kingship to the rightful Lord. But we are not yet there.

Christ asks each one of us: “And you—what can you do to help me? Will you go before me and prepare the way? Wherever you go, you can become my helper. And if you go before me and prepare the way, I will go with you in silence and bless your weak, imperfect efforts—until one day the time of my omnipotence has come.”

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, September 6, 2020

September 9, 2020/0 Comments/by CCNA

Homilies

Healing the Deaf Mute (Mark 7: 31-37)

Healing the Deaf-Mute (Mark 7: 31-37)

Illness is a good reason to see a doctor and ask for help. Obviously, you don’t see a doctor if you show no signs of illness or weakness. Following the same logic, many people do not feel the need to go to the altar and receive the healing medicine, either in the form of bread and wine or as spiritual communion.* You might perhaps think: Why should I receive any medicine when I am not sick? Or why should I go to the Act of Consecration of Man? Why should I be consecrated? There is nothing wrong with me!

As long as we look with earthly concepts at earthly human beings, there is indeed nothing wrong. We can only be grateful when we are not sick or weak, blind or deaf. But for the spiritual world we are sick, blind and deaf. We have no eyes to see and no ears to hear. In our daily life we even act as if there exists no spiritual world!

In the Act of Consecration we become conscious of our heavenly helpers. Without them we would have no existence, no life, no consciousness. That is why at the altar sound the words:

He moves in us through all existence.

Our life is His creating life.

Our beholding be drenched with His spirit light.

Only by looking up to the world above us do we begin to realize what we are lacking, no matter how healthy we are. In the awareness of our human shortcomings we become beggars for the spirit and ask the Savior to heal us of our blindness, our deafness, our weakness. When we receive the healing medicine He can speak the redeeming word:

Ephphatha – Be opened!

Because of the Act of Consecration we begin to lead a listening life. We begin to understand the signs of the Lord of Destiny, so that our life becomes more and more a reflection of His creating life.

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, August 30, 2020

* In classical theology a distinction is made between sacramental and spiritual communion (communio sacramentalis and communio spiritualis). St. Francis of Sales wrote: “When you cannot actually participate in the Eucharist, then at least do it in your heart and spirit by uniting yourself in ardent longing with the life-giving body of the Savior.”

September 2, 2020/0 Comments/by CCNA

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