28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Readings: 2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’

We have an inspiring story today of Jesus healing the ten lepers on the border of Samaria and Galilee. The story unfolds when the ten lepers approach Jesus from a distance. It is interesting to note that the Evangelist Luke has given this detail of the lepers approaching Jesus from a distance and asking him to show pity on them (“Kyrie Eleison”). The lepers in Jesus time were treated with contempt as leprosy was seen as contagious disease and no cure was available for it. It was also possible that many skin diseases, which were not contagious were also treated as leprosy and people who were affected with these diseases, were pushed away from the society. It’s also possible that many of these ‘lepers’ were both Jewish and Samaritan. On the other hand the Samaritans too were looked upon with contempt by the Jewish people and any contact with them was not appreciated (Episode of Jesus and Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John). Therefore the Samaritan leper was one of the last ones to be expected to come back and show gratitude for his healing, but in spite of all these presumptions, he turned and came back, and didn’t just ‘came back’, but came back “praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him” (Luke 17:15-16).

Jesus was visibly moved with this act of gratitude and exclaimed, “Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner” (Luke 17:17-18). Yes, this foreigner recognised the act of kindness towards him and returned to thank Jesus. The other nine, who were healed, forgot to show gratitude and went on their way.

We have a great message in this story, same as the one in the first reading, where Naaman, a Syrian (a foreigner in Judea), was healed by Elisha from leprosy. He returned to thank the prophet with a present. How often do I thank God for the good things that have happened in my life? How often do I remember to turn back and show gratitude to all people who have helped me? How often do I make an effort to offer thanks to my neighbour? It is important to ask these questions today dear friends, for it takes conscious effort from our part to thank someone. As a courtesy (and sometimes unconsciously!) we do say “‘Thank you” but do I really mean what I say? Let us ponder over it today.

Along with the attitude of gratitude, let us also look around us and see is there any ‘leper’ in our midst? Have I pushed someone outside the society, just because he/she has a disease or different colour, race, sex, sexual orientation, language, culture? We do still push people away for all different reasons and quite many times it is me who needs a healing/cleansing from my prejudices. I need to be lifted up from my own wretched state through which I have played a role in separating people on various grounds so that I have a ‘clean’, ‘healthy’, ‘civilised’ society. We have a lot of soul searching to do dear friends. May the Gospel of today help us in this regard. Amen.