A reading from the gospel according to Luke 17:11-19
11 Now it happened that on the way to Jerusalem he was travelling in the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee.
12 As he entered one of the villages, ten men suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to meet him. They stood some way off
13 and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’
14 When he saw them he said, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Now as they were going away they were cleansed.
15 Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice
16 and threw himself prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan.
17 This led Jesus to say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?
18 It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’
19 And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’
Reflection: Faith and Gratitude
In the time of Jesus and even during our time, lepers were marginalized because they were considered unclean. So in the gospel reading above, they stood at a distance as they called out Jesus to have pity on them. Their prayer was answered but only one of them, out of ten, went back to Jesus to express gratitude for the gift of healing. And He was a Samaritan – a foreigner at that!
“Your faith has saved you”, Jesus told the healed Samaritan. This is not the first time that Jesus mentioned the saving power of faith. For Jesus and the evangelists, this bears repeating again and again. Faith is necessary for miracles to happen. “Let it be done for you as you believed”, He told the centurion also a foreigner.
Compassion, faith and gratitude are the themes in many of Luke’s stories. Jesus has shown compassion for the last, least and the last such as lepers. On the other hand, it is the poor, the unwanted and the marginalized people who are often drawn to Jesus. He has become their only hope for deliverance.
Like the ten lepers, we often received healing and other blessings every day but only a few of us know how to give thanks and glorify God for the good things He is doing for us. The irony is that some people think that their blessings were achieved through their own efforts and abilities. May we learn to be compassionate like Jesus and full of faith and gratitude like the Samaritan leper.
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Here are some lessons for healing in particular and success in life in general:
1. Focus on your journey towards the Kingdom of God just as Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).
2. Call upon the name of Jesus even if you feel unworthy or marginalized.
3. Humbly but confidently express your desire, for example, to be healed.
4. Obey the commandments of Jesus. Do whatever He tells you (John 2:5). If He tells you to go and see the priest, don’t hesitate to follow.
5. Thank God or all His blessings. If possible, do it in a loud voice. Glorify Him for He is good all the time.
6. Stand up and go proclaiming the goodness of God.
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Jesus performs healing for the marginalized as He continues on His journey to Jerusalem in order to fulfill His central mission of dying on the cross for the salvation of the world. As we continue with our own journey towards His Kingdom, may we look and serve the last, the least and the lost people along the way. This means that even as we focus our eyes on our destination, let us not forget to see and to do what is good in the present moment.
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Like the ten lepers, we may be “standing at a distance” from others. It is either due to our aloofness or feelings of unworthiness. We may be looking down at others because they are different from us and so we become one of the causes of marginalization. On the other hand, we may have low self-esteem to the point of not interacting much with others and so we marginalize our own self. Let this made-made separations or divisions be healed by the Spirit of love and care.
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Jesus is our healer. Let us humbly call upon His name to heal our illnesses and brokenness. He is the son of God and there is no illness that is impossible for Him to heal. We just have to surrender to Him and allow His power to reach our innermost being.
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Ten lepers were healed but only one returned to expressed gratitude. “Where are the other nine?”, Jesus asked. They received the gifts of healing but they forgot to even say thank you. Let us not be one of them. Let us always thank Him even before we receive our blessings.
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Suggested activities to develop the habit of gratitude:
1. Every morning, say thank you for the gift of life, for the gift of a new day, and for new opportunities that the new day may bring.
2. Every night before closing your eyes to sleep, count the number of blessings you receive during the day and thank God for each of them.
3. During your birthday, write as many blessings you receive as your age. For example, if you are 35 years old, write 35 things to thank for.
Always remember that:
1. Gratitude is the true source of joy and not the other way.
2. Gratitude along the way makes your destination fun and easier to reach.
3. Choosing to be grateful opens the door for more blessings.
