Commander Naaman’s lesson

There was once an Army Commander who was a valiant warrior who unfortunately had leprosy. Back then it was still incurable and you simply lived and died with it. But in one of his combat operations, Commander Naaman saved a young girl who had survived the battle and brought her home to be a maid for his wife. The couple was apparently nice people because the young girl felt pity for Naaman and told the lady of the house that an old man in her hometown could surely heal Naaman’s leprosy. So the wife convinced Naaman, who was either desperate enough or humble enough to go to his boss for a leave of absence and a referral letter to the authorities in the area.

When the referral letter was presented to the principal authority, he saw it as an excuse to pick a fight with his people because they had no way of healing leprosy and said that only God can do that. Word got out and reached the old man that the girl was referring to and he said, “Let him come to me so that he may know there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman and his entourage was led to the house of Elisha the Prophet, but no prophet stepped out, only a lowly servant who told him to go to the river Jordan and dip seven times to be healed. This on many counts was a cultural and tactical insult that seemed designed to put Naaman in his place. Courtesy requires that one faces and receives his visitor, especially someone who has military power over you. Instead of some mystical, magical performance of chants and incantations, he gets sent to take a bath in the local river. Like many of us, Naaman’s pride is pricked and he points out the insult and his view that there are greater and nicer bodies of water where he comes from.

The valiant warrior was probably very tempted to torch the place but again servants came to the rescue and asked, “Father, if the prophet had asked you to perform some great task would you not have performed it? How much more then when he tells you, ‘wash and be cleansed’?” So he went down and dipped seven times and came out clean with skin like that of a young boy. After this Naaman and all his servants assembled before Elisha, expressing his gratitude and offering gifts that the prophet declined.

Even before Jesus Christ was born, man has known of dreaded diseases, pestilence and the like. The story of Naaman teaches us that disease is nothing new and healing comes through many ways, miraculous, clinical, radical or terminal. God decides who to fix and who to call home. Leprosy was once incurable but not anymore. Naaman teaches us that knowledge is not the monopoly of people with titles or in position, especially with pandemics such as COVID-19, and that answers to problems or dilemmas can come from the lowly maid, the enemy you’ve occupied or the critic you despise, or those who do not share our view or reality.

Naaman’s wife could have dismissed the young maid’s belief that a prophet in Israel could heal Naaman’s leprosy. Naaman could have dismissed his wife’s suggestion, given that in those days, leaders were generally dismissive of women. Naaman could have opted to simply tough it out like most warriors do, but if he did he would not have been the recipient of God’s miracle and missed out on being a biblical testimony of God’s power. He could have torched Elisha’s place or barked and threatened at the young servants for their impudence, he could have stormed off to save face or ranted and raged or remained immovable on the subject matter. Instead Naaman listened to the lowly servants, swallowed his pride and remained focused on the objective of winning the healing. He knew his power and authority to be secure enough to do what needed to be done. He was humble enough, and surely learned to trust even the small people or those outside the circle of power or influence until that crucial moment when their voices became the loudest in his heart and mind.

During the month of May the national government has had its hands full with groups violating health protocols, critics lambasting policies and procedures on vaccination, quarantines and continued restrictions. It was our Summer of Discontent. The low point perhaps was when Cebu-bound planes were diverted to Manila because Cebu province insisted on implementing a science-based swabbing and quarantine protocol that had been verified and validated and, most importantly, very humanitarian and pro-people that saved citizens and the government millions of pesos. The IATF insisted on a one-nation protocol. The diversion made Malacañang look like a bully until President Duterte intervened and got everyone face to face and present their case and arguments.

Governor Gwen Garcia later went on social media to point out that the current IATF protocol of delaying testing led to more infections after five days. The cost to government would run into millions that it did not have, 14-day hotel quarantines cannot be implemented because there are not enough hotel rooms to service the inflow of OFWs and returning Filipinos, the latter not having the money to pay the 14 days in a hotel and that placing four island provinces into one basket and adding the number of cases and declaring an outbreak was and is intellectual dishonesty. With all this on the table, I pray that President Duterte and the officials of the IATF would consider Proverbs 1: 5 “ Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance.”

For those my age here’s a few lines from Desiderata:

“Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant: they too have their story.”

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