O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you
and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you
with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
FIRST LESSON 2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high
favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though
a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken
a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said
to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would
cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from
the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send
along a letter to the king of Israel." He went, taking with him ten talents of
silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to
the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent
to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of
Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or
life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how
he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that
the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you
torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in
Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of
Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan
seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman
became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out,
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot,
and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all
the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went
away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet
had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more,
when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?" So he went down and
immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his
flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
