Gospel

Luke 17:11- 19

Jesus Shows Pity: It is easy to forget at times what it meant to be a leper in Jesus

time. Such a person had to separate himself from the community, live outside

the town, and declare himself unclean when anybody started to approach

him. Since illness was also equated with sin. According to the mentality of the

time, God punished the sinner with physical illness. Thus, to have to shout

unclean meant that one had to publicly declare he was a sinner. So, as

miserable a state as leprosy was, worse still was the shame of it. From here we

understand better the sense of desperation and urgency in the lepers petition:

Jesus, Master! Have pity on us! There is such thing as spiritual leprosy too, but

Jesus can heal the sickness in our soul within confession. As Christians we should

look for this as ardently as the ten lepers looked to be healed of their bodily

leprosy.

The Lepers Were Cleansed: Jesus felt obliged to perform the miracle of curing

these ten lepers; they truly believed he could do it. That is why Jesus so hastily

tells them to go to the priest as prescribed by the law and have their return to

health officially recognized; thus will end their banishment and disgrace.

However, in their burst of joy nine of the cured ten forget to say thank you. At

first it seems strange to us that they would omit this, after being transformed in
one moment from utter misery to a clean bill of health. However, we often do

the same; we forget to say thanks in the joy of a moment when someone has

really helped us or resolved a major problem for us.

Stand up and go. It did occur to one leper, a foreigner, to come back and

say thank you; it was the Samaritan leper. In Jesus time Samaritans and Jews

normally despised each other, which probably makes his words of thanks to

Jesus all the more remarkable. However, what really catches Jesus attention is

the fact that only one person comes back to express his words of gratitude.

Doesnt this passage remind us of how rare is the virtue of gratitude in the

human heart? The cured Samaritans faith has saved him, and it wouldnt be

rash of us to think that he used especially well the new gift of health the Lord

had given him.