The cleansing to the 10 lepers
It's the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today's gospel reading comes from St. Luke 17:11-19. It is a very short reading with great lessons of gratitude to learn from. Most of us rely upon the favors of God but more often than not, when the Lord gives us his graces, we often forget that all that we have comes from the Almighty One. Let's read what St. Luke had to say about the 10 lepers that our Lord healed:
"As he continued his journey to Jerusalem, he travelled through Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him 13 and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" 14 And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; 16 and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? 18 Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" 19 Then he said to him, "Standup and go; your faith has saved you."
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In these modern times, we encounter a few lepers simply because modern medicine has advanced to a point that a leper can be cured of his debilitating disease. But in ancient times, people already had a system where they put the lepers in a separate colony – like a cave – where food was thrown into them so that they wouldn't starve. It really is a pitiful site and the ancient ones believed that getting leprosy was a curse from God. You are one step into death when you have leprosy.
Another thing to remember is that lepers are warned to stay away from people so as not to spread their disease. Except for their disease, lepers do have a life and they often hear about the things happening in their old homes or villages. If you remember watching the epic movie "Ben-Hur", you would be able to have a bird's eye view of what a leper colony looked like in Palestine. And for sure, these lepers must have heard of the Lord Jesus Christ as a healer and perhaps they heard that he was passing through and 10 of them left their colony to greet him.
Right on the dot, as Jesus was entering one of the villages, he met these 10 lepers who immediately asked him, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. This statement of our Lord is quite perplexing in the sense that he ordered the 10 lepers he just cleansed to show themselves to the priest perhaps for their ritual cleansing. Without the ritual cleansing by the priests, these lepers could not return back to society as only the priests were authorized to certify that they have been cleansed.
Yet when the 10 lepers realized that they have been cleansed or healed by Jesus, only the Samaritan came back to Jesus to thank him for being healed. Jesus then said, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then he said to him, "Standup and go; your faith has saved you."
This brings us to the question: Do we thank God enough for the multitude of blessings that he showers upon our family and us? I guess this is the reason why our Lord Jesus Christ talks about this incident of the 10 lepers where none but the hated Samaritan comes back around to thank God for healing him.
Mind you, this is much a reality today as it was yesterday. In fact, when I reviewed my DVD of the Broadway Musical "Fiddler on the Roof," there was a portion when the main player Teyve played by Topol spoke of always helping Menachem the Beggar. Until one day, when he ran out of money, he had to apologize to the beggar that he had to reduce his alms. Menachem the beggar merely shrugged off and said, "Why should I be affected by your loss?" This just gives you a glimpse of this cruel world that we live in.
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is intellect, by which we are able to discern right from wrong and make the right decisions with our loves. Without this gift of our intellect, we would just be like the village idiot that no one gives a hoot about. But I dare you to watch the Academy Awards or the Famas Awards and those who are given the Best Actress or Best Actor Awards usually thank their directors or producers. How many give thanks to God first? Whatever gifts God gives,He is the very reason for your recognition.
Thanking God for everything he has done for us is crucial to our daily lives. This is why we always pray before meals thanking God for the blessing of having a meal, which many unfortunate ones could only dream of. We must learn to thank God for everything that happens to us – big and small.
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