TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
9 OCTOBER 2016
Saint
Luke does not tell us why nine of the ten healed lepers do not return to thank
Jesus. We can only guess. Maybe they were so excited about the removal
of their pain and isolation that they rushed home and forgot. Leprosy was a terrible scourge in the ancient
world. Not only did the disease cause
horrible pain. It also isolated the
leper completely from the community, in an effort to protect the rest of the
community from being infected. Or, maybe
they concluded that the Law of Moses healed them. They might have thought that they were
entitled to being healed, because they followed the Law and were going to show
themselves to the priests.
Saint Luke
clearly tells us that Jesus is disappointed that only one leper has returned to
give thanks, and this leper is a Samaritan, a person clearly outside the Law of
Moses. Jesus had been expecting the
return of all ten, because he was not finished with them. He had intended the physical healing as a
first step to open their eyes to see that the messianic age is now present in
him. They may have been healed. But, in their failure to express gratitude,
they did not receive the ultimate gift of Jesus – the gift of salvation, given
to the healed Samaritan leper.
We can
learn a very important lesson from this healing miracle. We must admit that we have more in common
with the nine healed lepers than we think.
Like them, we have received many blessings. Our lives are blessed in more ways than we
can imagine. Despite troubles and
difficulties, we have the best standard of living of anyone in the entire
world. It is easy to take our standard
of living for granted. So many times, it
is only when we travel to Third World countries or participate on mission trips
to impoverished areas of our own country that we fully realize how blessed we
are. Those experiences open our eyes to
the fact that it is easy to consider ourselves entitled to our blessings; much
like the Jewish lepers might have felt entitled to the healing they received in
following the Law of Moses. When we have
an attitude of entitlement, then we forget to express our gratitude. We think that we have earned the good life,
forgetting that everything we have is ultimately a gift from God. Like children who become accustomed to lavish
gifts at Christmas or at birthdays, we expect our blessings to happen.
If we
listen to the first reading from the Book of Kings, we learn another lesson
from Naaman, a Syrian general living 800 years before the birth of Christ. Naaman had everything: wealth, power, prestige, and a very fit athletic
body. He led soldiers into battle and
plundered his enemies, enriching himself and his family. But, he lost all of that when he was
afflicted with the disease of leprosy.
As a leper suffering physical pain and emotional trauma from being
separated from his community, he was humbled to ask for help from Elisha, a
prophet in enemy territory. Things got
worse when Elisha told him to plunge into the River Jordan seven times. The rivers in Syria were much better! But, he did it and was healed. His leprosy humbled him to ask for help and
brought him to believe in the God who healed him through Elisha.
In one way
or another, each of us is a leper. Each
of us has something in our lives that causes pain and separation. Leprosy can bring us to our knees in such a
way that we cry out for help. Our
leprosy can bring us to the God who can heal us and bring us salvation. Once we understand our need for salvation, we
can express gratitude for all the gifts God has given us. We often talk about Saint Pius being a
stewardship parish. This is the heart of
living stewardship as a way of life: a
deep and abiding gratitude for all the gifts God has given us. And that is why we are here today: to give thanks to God for all of the gifts
God has given us and to continue to seek the salvation won for us in Christ
Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment