Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB
In this gospel from Luke 17 we hear of the 10 lepers being healed. They begged the Lord for healing, and it was granted to them according to their request. Jesus told them to show themselves to the high priests. On their way, they were healed. Then one, a Samaritan, returned glorifying God in a loud voice and fell at the feet of Jesus.
I often wondered why Jesus questioned why the others did not return to Him. Jesus did tell them to go to the high priests to show and prove that they were healed. They were obedient to Him and His command. I know for myself, if Jesus told me to do something, I would do it. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus saw in their hearts that, though they were grateful for the healing, they didn't really have that faith that would save them for eternal life. They may have gone back to their usual lives and did not give God a second thought.
The one who returned to Him was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were very much looked down upon by the Jewish people of the time. There was a great deal of hatred and animosity between the two groups. And here he is, this Samaritan, returning to Jesus, praising God, and being truly grateful for the gift of healing. Jesus tells him that "... your faith has saved you."
As wonderful as the healing from leprosy was, what was more important to Jesus was faith in Him and in God the Father. Faith in God and developing that relationship with a loving, healing God, is what Jesus was emphasizing. Further, Jesus was using a foreigner, someone the Jews really disliked, as an example of how to have faith and trust in God. This must have really gotten on the nerves of the Jews around Him.
You may recall this is not the first time he praised a Samaritan. There's the story of the Good Samaritan that showed how we are to not only love God with our whole minds and hearts, but how we are to treat others, especially when they are in need. We are to be neighbor to all people, even to those that we may not feel comfortable being around.
What we're learning here from the Lord is of the importance of Faith in God and relationship with God. And this faith and relationship with God is open to all people, not just to a select few.
Let us turn to the Lord, and, with the 10 Lepers, say, "Jesus, Master! Have mercy on us!" Then let us have the faith that Jesus will not only heal us of whatever is afflicting us (physically or emotionally) but that we will also have the faith necessary to gain eternal salvation.
From Arlene B. Muller:
ReplyDeleteYES, I have often wondered about the 9 Jewish lepers who did not stop & turn back to thank JESUS for their healing on their way to show themselves to the priest, in obedience to JESUS' command & the Jewish law. Being raised in a devout Catholic family & educated in Catholic schools, obedience is a very important value to me, so I think I would have gone straight to the priest & then looked to thank JESUS afterwards. The Jewish people were bound to the Jewish law & taught to be obedient. The Samaritans, in a sense, were the "renegades" who mixed Judaism with their own rules, so the Samaritan who had been healed from leprosy would have felt less of a compulsion to obey the command of JESUS & the Jewish law to the letter. All 10 lepers apparently had a measure of faith, because they began their walk to the priest while still leprosy & received the healing JESUS gave them in the process of obeying. None of the 10 lepers showed any indication of doubt, questioning or hesitation. I think the Samaritan had the advantage of freedom to turn back to express his gratitude because he was not rooted and grounded in the Jewish law.
Since JESUS is GOD, He is able to read hearts & this was one aspect of His Divinity that He did not cast aside when stripping Himself of the privileges of Divinity & humbling Himself to take on our humanity & become one like us in all things but sin. So apparently He knew more about what was in the hearts of the 9 Jewish lepers He had healed than we do. My ideal scenario would have had them go to the priest & then come back to thank JESUS. Of course, maybe the Jewish lepers did not feel confident enough in the reality of their healing until it was confirmed by the priest, while the Samaritan fully believed & did not need confirmation of what JESUS had done for them. Maybe JESUS knew they would not come back to Him or else He would have not expressed disappointment but would have waited patiently for them to return.