How Do You Know?

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, October 9th:
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 Kings
5:14-17

Naaman the Syrian 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.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; Naaman came and stood before Elisha and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.”

But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!” Naaman urged Elisha to accept, but he refused. Then Naaman said, “If not, please let two mule-loads of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god except the Lord.”

Naaman came and stood before Elisha and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel ….”

Naaman was healed of leprosy; this is how he knew. 

It’s a knowing that is different from other knowing. Soul-knowledge. A  deep sense of what’s true, despite the lengths to which we go to convince ourselves otherwise. 

It’s often unexplainable. It requires an embrace of mystery, mystery that is held up by the richest of meaning.

The experience of others, like Naaman, acquiring this knowledge helps to draw us there, to the place where God becomes a possibility. To the pool of greatest meaning, where the things of utmost importance are mirrored. Where we see our reflection and know. 

We know.

That we are intended, that we are good, and that we are meant to be whole.

Healing doesn’t always (or even often) happen instantaneously; the knowledge of God sometimes comes slowly, as it has with me. The only requirement has been an acceptance of God’s wisdom over my own. Gradually, gently, mercifully, but nonetheless often painfully, restoration occurs, bringing with it deep joy and gratitude for the glory that belongs only to Him who makes it all possible and shows us the Way.

God’s unmatched creativity allows Him to design endless ways in which to draw us to Himself. On my own, I cannot convince anyone of my soul-knowledge – I can only pray that it is evident to others in the new creation that I become when I am anchored in that pool of meaning. I am but one facet in the kaleidoscope through which others might encounter Him and know. If we don’t allow our own knowing to transform us, we stay “leprous” – exiled, restrained, stifled.  

I pray that we will all be challenged to understand and share how we know what we know in God. That we may be restored so that others might see the glory of God uniquely through each of us and help them to know. 

How do you know?



Lindsay Elford

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