"Where are the other nine? Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."
Luke 17: 11-19
In this age of medical miracles, vaccinations, antibiotics,
aspirin, x-rays, cancer treatment, open heart surgeries, organ donors, vitamins
and cures and potential cures and vaccinations for many diseases that threaten us, it may be
very difficult to imagine a society with none of those medical advancements. We
would be helpless victims of just about everything that would endanger our
health. With no knowledge of bacteria, infection, and how the human body works,
we might well become fatalistic. If you’re terminally ill, that’s it. Your time
is up. Those afflicted with physical or mental disabilities, would be labeled
as punished for some wrong they must have done. For a moment, imagine such a
society.
If we could, we would walk in the world of Jesus’ time. The
familiar story in our Gospel this Sunday reveals both cultural prejudice and
the outward boundaries which Jesus’ challenged the society of his time. These poor individuals literally were shunned from both society and from worship so they essentially belonged nowhere. And Jesus walks in that same boundary between Samaria and Galilee knowing exactly why he is there.
The story names leprosy as the disease these unfortunate souls,
these “ten lepers” suffered with. Would you like to be identified by the
condition you suffer rather than by your name or your humanity? No longer would you be John or Mary being
treated for cancer. Now you would be “those cancerous ones” or “those
cancerites” or some such dehumanizing identity.
Such a label might cause more pain than the disease itself. Such was true in the
time of our Lord.
At the time of Jesus any condition of the skin which appeared
“unclean” automatically separated the clean from the seriously sick or
deformed. So, whatever was their physical appearance, it was enough to have
thrown these ten individuals far away from the community. Yet, in reaching out, in pushing those limits
farther apart, the story this Sunday is far more than a miracle event. It is
more than just a physical cure but present a lesson on discipleship and the
power of faith to transform.
It seems that those afflicted all had a sense that Jesus could
cure them; they believed in him on that level.
They went to show themselves to the priest according to custom once
cured. Yet, only one returned to give
thanks. His faith in Christ was more
than just a surface level of request. He
recognized what Jesus had done for him, the new life a kind of resurrection
experience that he now had, and was so moved to gratitude for what Jesus did
for him. How he was saved from a dead
end life no longer in the stigma of sin but in the new life of God’s mercy.
Like all the miracle stories and parables of Jesus we are
called to see ourselves. The other very
significant point is how Jesus healed. We hear an echo in our first reading about
Naaman who was healed at the word of Elisha the prophet of God. All it took was Naaman’s faith and trust and
the word of the prophet was enough.
The same is always true in Jesus. That his word alone was necessary to bring
about a change. We see it in the healing
stories when he says: “be healed, rise
and walk, receive your sight, Lazarus come forth, this is my Body, this is my
Blood, your sins are forgiven.” Such
words ring deep in our hearts knowing, as the Samaritan man in our Gospel came
to realize, that faith in Christ Jesus is where our lives need to be
centered. Simply his word alone is all
that is needed.
So here we might ask, what is my leprosy? What afflicts me that moves me to turn to God
for help? What wound do I carry that
continues to be a burden in my life? It
might be physical, emotional, or spiritual emptiness. Whatever forms our leprosy may take, and we
all are afflicted, we must bring that before Christ for healing and help.
The other response is then deep gratitude. As the man was healed, Luke tells us he, “ .
. . fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked
him . . .” He fell at his feet in a form of worship for he came to realize
not only who was the source of his healing but from where it came. He returned
“glorifying God in a loud voice.” He
knew the source of his healing and was deeply humbled by it. He recognized Jesus as one of God; as one who
healed not just his body but his entire person; as one who treated him not as a
“leper” but as a person deserving of value. And this should lead us to gratitude of
the deepest kind.
So where that leaves us is to recognize how in the Church Jesus
continues this same ministry of grace and mercy. We hear: “I absolve you from you sins, I
baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be sealed with the
gift of the Holy Spirit, through this holy anointing may the Lord help you,
this is my Body, this is my Blood.” These are the powerful words of Jesus
spoken in the sacrament and in particular in that great, central sacrament of
thanksgiving, the Eucharist. Christ
comes to us in a substantial presence and invites us to lay our concerns on the
altar for offering.
The celebration of our Holy Eucharist is a moment to bring our
limitations, our sin, our own “leprosy” if need be to this same God in the
person of Jesus to be healed and even more to receive not just hope but Christ
himself in the Eucharist.
When is the last time you felt truly grateful for the
Mass? To know that we too are members of
Christ’s family called the Church is a fact that bears much reflection. Is our prejudice, laziness, or “same old,
same old” attitude keeping us from truly grasping what God has done for us in
the Eucharist? Much to ponder I think.
May your grace, O Lord, we pray,
at all times go before us and follow after
and make us always determined
to carry out good works.
(Collect of Mass)
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