28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Luke 17:11-19
This Sunday’s Readings
First Reading
2 Kings 5:14-17
Naaman is cleansed of his leprosy and chooses to serve the God of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 98:1,2-3,3-4
Rejoice! The salvation of God is made known to all.
Second Reading
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Those who remain faithful to Christ will share Christ’s glory.
Gospel Reading
Luke 17:11-19
Jesus heals 10 lepers, and one, the Samaritan, returns to give thanks.
Background on the Gospel Reading
Today we hear about how Jesus, continuing on his journey to Jerusalem, heals 10 lepers. This story is a lesson about faith and reminds us that faith is sometimes found in unlikely places. Ten people afflicted with leprosy cry out to Jesus. Struck with pity, Jesus heals all 10. However, only one is described as glorifying God and returning to thank Jesus. The one who returns is a Samaritan, a foreigner. In the Jewish circles in which Jesus lived, Samaritans were looked down upon because of the differences between the two communities in their observance of Judaism. It is ignificant, therefore, that Jesus commends the Samaritan for his faith, which has been his salvation. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, faith is found in surprising places.
Another lesson for us in this Gospel has to do with salvation. All 10 of the lepers were given the gift of healing, but in his gratitude to God for this gift, the Samaritan found salvation. Our salvation is found in recognizing the gifts we have been given and knowing to whom we must offer our thanks.
The journey of faith:
To cry out. To walk. To give thanks
Pope Francis
“Your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:19). This is the climax of today’s Gospel, which reflects the journey of faith. There are three steps in this journey of faith. We see them in the actions of the lepers whom Jesus heals. They cry out, they walk and they give thanks.
First, they cry out. The lepers were in a dreadful situation, not only because of a disease that, widespread even today, needs to be battled with unremitting effort, but also because of their exclusion from society. At the time of Jesus, lepers were considered unclean and, as such, had to be isolated and kept apart (cf. Lev 13:46). We see that when they approach Jesus, they “kept their distance” (Lk 17:12). Even though their condition kept them apart, the Gospel tells us that they “called out” (v. 13) and pleaded with Jesus. They did not let themselves be paralyzed because they were shunned by society; they cried out to God, who excludes no one. We see how distances are shortened, how loneliness is overcome: by not closing in on ourselves and our own problems, by not thinking about how others judge us, but rather by crying out to the Lord, for the Lord hears the cry of those who find themselves alone.
Like those lepers, we too need healing, each one of us. We need to be healed of our lack of confidence in ourselves, in life, in the future; we need to be healed of our fears and the vices that enslave us, of our introversion, our addictions and our attachment to games, money, television, mobile phones, to what other people think. The Lord sets our hearts free and heals them if only we ask him, only if we say to him: “Lord, I believe you can heal me. Dear Jesus, heal me from being caught up in myself. Free me from evil and fear”. The lepers are the first people, in this Gospel, who called on the name of Jesus. Later, a blind man and a crucified thief would do so: all of them needy people calling on the name of Jesus, which means: “God saves”. They call God by name, directly and spontaneously. To call someone by name is a sign of confidence, and it pleases the Lord. That is how faith grows, through confident, trusting prayer. Prayer in which we bring to Jesus who we really are, with open hearts, without attempting to mask our sufferings. Each day, let us invoke with confidence the name of Jesus: “God saves”. Let us repeat it: that is prayer, to say “Jesus“ is to pray. And prayer is essential! Indeed, prayer is the door of faith; prayer is medicine for the heart.
The second word is to walk. It is the second stage. In today’s brief Gospel, there are several verbs of motion. It is quite striking that the lepers are not healed as they stand before Jesus; it is only afterwards, as they were walking. The Gospel tells us that: “As they went, they were made clean” (v. 14). They were healed by going up to Jerusalem, that is, while walking uphill. On the journey of life, purification takes place along the way, a way that is often uphill since it leads to the heights. Faith calls for journey, a “going out” from ourselves, and it can work wonders if we abandon our comforting certainties, if we leave our safe harbours and our cosy nests. Faith increases by giving, and grows by taking risks. Faith advances when we make our way equipped with trust in God. Faith advances with humble and practical steps, like the steps of the lepers or those of Naaman who went down to bathe in the river Jordan (cf. 2 Kings 5:14-17). The same is true for us. We advance in faith by showing humble and practical love, exercising patience each day, and praying constantly to Jesus as we keep pressing forward on our way.
There is a further interesting aspect to the journey of the lepers: they move together. The Gospel tells us that, “as they went, they were made clean” (v. 14). The verbs are in the plural. Faith means also walking together, never alone. Once healed, however, nine of them go off on their own way, and only one turns back to offer thanks. Jesus then expresses his astonishment: “The others, where are they?” (v. 17). It is as if he asks the only one who returned to account for the other nine. It is the task of us, who celebrate the Eucharist as an act of thanksgiving, to take care of those who have stopped walking, those who have lost their way. We are called to be guardians of our distant brothers and sisters, all of us! We are to intercede for them; we are responsible for them, to account for them, to keep them close to heart. Do you want to grow in faith? You, who are here today, do you want to grow in faith? Then take care of a distant brother, a faraway sister.
To cry out. To walk. And to give thanks. This is the final step. Only to the one who thanked him did Jesus say: “Your faith has saved you” (v. 19). It made you both safe, and sound. We see from this that the ultimate goal is not health or wellness, but the encounter with Jesus. Salvation is not drinking a glass of water to keep fit; it is going to the source, which is Jesus. He alone frees us from evil and heals our hearts. Only an encounter with him can save, can make life full and beautiful. Whenever we meet Jesus, the word “thanks” comes immediately to our lips, because we have discovered the most important thing in life, which is not to receive a grace or resolve a problem, but to embrace the Lord of life. And this is the most important thing in life: to embrace the Lord of life.
It is impressive to see how the man who was healed, a Samaritan, expresses his joy with his entire being: he praises God in a loud voice, he prostrates himself, and he gives thanks (cf. vv. 15-16). The culmination of the journey of faith is to live a life of continual thanksgiving. Let us ask ourselves: do we, as people of faith, live each day as a burden, or as an act of praise? Are we closed in on ourselves, waiting to ask another blessing, or do we find our joy in giving thanks? When we express our gratitude, the Father’s heart is moved and he pours out the Holy Spirit upon us. To give thanks is not a question of good manners or etiquette; it is a question of faith. A grateful heart is one that remains young. To say “Thank you, Lord” when we wake up, throughout the day and before going to bed: that is the best way to keep our hearts young, because hearts can grow old and be spoilt. This also holds true for families, and between spouses. Remember to say thank you. Those words are the simplest and most effective of all.
13 October 2019
“Exclusion”: a word banned by the Gospel and the Mission
Romeo Ballan, mccj
Reflections
By a miracle Jesus cures and purifies ten lepers, even if only one – a Samaritan, a foreigner! – returns to praise God and to thank Jesus (v. 18). The first evident message of today’s Gospel is about good manners: we learn how to say “thanks” to one who bestows on us a favour or a kind gesture. In various occasions Pope Francis has given a pastoral exhortation on the base of three simple and common words: Thanks! – Sorry! – Please! In our daily experience, everybody realises how these three words are important for family life and for community relationships. Last Sunday we have already seen how the precious gift of Christian faith clearly requires the homage of our gratitude to God, by a missionary commitment, by sharing our faith, by supporting the missionary efforts of the Church.
In addition to the gratitude, in today’s Gospel Jesus goes well beyond a lesson in good manners: His miracle is for people who are the most excluded from civil and religious society: lepers and foreigners. The law of the time was very strict and detailed concerning lepers (Lev 13-14), who were regarded as impure, accursed and punished by God with the worst of the scourges. They were bound to live apart from their families, outside the villages and to shout to the passersby to keep away from them. By his miracle, Jesus overturns such a banishing mentality: God’s salvation is offered to all, without excluding anyone; the lepers are not a cursed people. On the contrary, their cure becomes a sign of the presence of the Kingdom: the fact that “lepers are cleansed” (Mt 11:5; Lk 7:22) is a clear sign that the Messiah is present and at work, as Jesus points out to those sent by his friend John the Baptist who had been imprisoned. From the beginning of his public life, Jesus feels sorry for, stretches out his hand, touches a leper and cures him (Mk 1:40-42). God’s project is never exclusive; He points to inclusion and communion, to aggregation and sharing. This openness is manifested also in the cure of a foreign leper, Naaman (I Reading), the army commander of the king of Aram (Syria).
Out of the ten lepers, nine were Jews and one was a Samaritan. All of them are cured by Jesus but not all of them gain full salvation. “The event tells us that physical cure does not always become ultimate salvation… The nine Jews continue their journey to the temple to take their place again in civil and religious life of Israel… The only Samaritan of the group behaves unlike the others. He returns alone to thank the Master, because he realises that in Jesus he can find something new and different… Jesus offers him a salvation that is much more than a mere physical cure: ‘Stand up and go. Your faith has saved you’ (v. 19)… The Samaritan did not hurry to the temple (like the other nine), but returned to Jesus ‘to give praise to God’ (v. 18), showing in this way that he understood how the God who saves is no longer to be found and honoured in the temple, but in our union with Christ” (C. Ginami).
St. Paul gives to his disciple Timothy (II Reading) a warm exhortation to become united with Christ and to follow His new way: “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead” (v. 8). Paul is faithful to Him: even if he has to suffer in chains, he proclaims Him with confidence, in the certainty that “God’s Word cannot be chained up” (v. 9). We can trust Him, even to the point of giving our life, because “He is always faithful” (v. 11-13). Also St. Daniel Comboni -whose feast we celebrate on October 10- did the same experience as Paul and reached a high level of spiritual maturity. To his future missionaries Comboni persistently pointed out the ideal of Christ crucified and risen, encouraging them to always keep “their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, loving Him tenderly and seeking always to understand more fully the meaning of a God who died on the cross for the salvation of souls.” So they dispose themselves to “lose everything and to die for Him and with Him… even by martyrdom.”
Jesus looked for unclean, heretical, excluded and marginalised people He came to “gather together in unity the scattered children of God” (Jn 11:52). Following His example, Christian faithful are called to be people of communion with all; to be men and women who reject any discriminating motivation and praxis; people who choose the way of unity, solidarity, inclusiveness; people who work within the community to alleviate the suffering of all who are prevented or excluded from any area of Christian and civil life due to restrictions and laws, anywhere they come from. This is the mission Jesus entrusted to the Church: to work for the fullest communion of all with all.
From healing to faith
Fernando Armellini
It was said in the time of Jesus: “Four categories of persons are treated as dead: the poor, the leper, the blind, and the childless.”
The lepers could not approach the village and places where they used to live, as they were considered impure, like the cemeteries. Some rabbis declared that if they had met a leper they would have stoned him and shout at him: “Return to your place and do not contaminate other people.” All diseases were considered a punishment for sins but leprosy was the symbol of sin itself. God used it—they said—to strike above all persons who were envious, arrogant, thieves, responsible for murders, making false oaths, and incestuous. The healing of leprosy was a miracle comparable to the resurrection of a dead person. Only the Lord could cure it. But first, they have to atone for all the sins that had caused it.
The lepers felt rejected by all: by people and by God.
Since these were the customs and mentality, one understands the reason why the ten lepers stopped at a distance and shouted from afar: “Jesus, teacher, have mercy on us” (v. 13).
It should be noted: they do not ask him for healing but only for compassion, that he be moved by their desperate condition. Perhaps they are waiting only for alms. As soon as he sees them Jesus says: “Go and present yourselves to the priests” (v.14). The ten lepers therefore go and along the way they are cured.
There is something special in this miracle: the healing does not happen immediately. The leprosy disappears later, while the lepers are along the way. This makes the episode similar to the story in the First Reading. Naaman is healed after departing from Elisha.
Seeing himself cured, one of the ten lepers turns back and finding the Master, falls on his knees to thank him.
He is a Samaritan. Jesus marvels that only he, a stranger, felt the need to give glory to God. He lifts him up and says to him: “Rise up and go; your faith has saved you.”
We notice foremost that the story does not speak of one but ten lepers. Luke does not underline this particular just for the record. The number ten in the Bible has a symbolic value: it indicates the totality (the hands have ten fingers). The lepers of the Gospel represent therefore all the people, the entire humanity far away from God. All of us—Luke wants to tell us—are lepers and we need to encounter Jesus. No one is pure; we all carry on our skins signs of death that only the word of Christ can cure.
Whoever is not aware of one’s own condition of being a sinner ends up considering oneself righteous and with the duty to condemn others to the margins. God has not created two worlds: one for the good ones and the other for the wicked ones but—be it in the present or in the future—a unique world wherein he calls all his children to live together, all sinners are saved by his love.
The same message is contained in a second paradox: leprosy puts together Jews and Samaritans, unites persons who, while in good health, despise, hate, and fight each other. The awareness of common disgrace and suffering gathers them in friendship and solidarity.
And this is exactly what happens in the spiritual field: if one considers himself just and perfect, inevitably one raises the barriers and fences for self-protection from “lepers.” Whoever realizes himself/herself as a leper will not feel superior, will not judge, not distance himself/herself, not look down but will be in solidarity in good and in bad with the brothers/sisters.
Jesus is not afraid to be considered a sinner. He is not a “Pharisee” who distances himself from the impure. At the end of the story of the healed leper, the evangelist Mark notes that, after stretching his hand and curing him, he could no longer enter publicly in a city but stayed outside in deserted places (Mk 1:45). Jesus knew that touching the leper he made a gesture that would make him unclean and for that, he had to distance himself from the society of the pure. He touched him all the same because he chose to share the condition of the marginalized, excluded, and outcasts.
The third paradox has to do with solidarity among people: the ten lepers do not try to save each on his own. They go together in search of Jesus. Their common prayer is: “Jesus, Teacher, you who understand our condition, have mercy on us.”
This prayer is a condemnation of the pseudo-spiritual, individualistic, intimate invocation preached by those searching for “salvation of one’s own soul.” Salvation can be reached only together with the brothers/sisters. The great personages of the Bible are always in solidarity with their people. Azariah, a young man of upright and exemplary life, prays: “For we have sinned and acted perversely by deserting you. We have sinned gravely in everything and have not listened to your commandments. We have not observed them and we have not fulfilled everything you commanded us for our good” (Dn 3:29-30). Moses turns to the Lord saying: “And now please forgive their sins … if not blot me out of the book you have written” (Ex 32:32). Paul even pronounces the paradoxical phrase: “I even would desire that I myself suffer the curse of being cut off from Christ, instead of my brethren: I mean my own people, my kin” (Rom 9:3).
In paradise, no one, not even God, will be happy until the last human being is liberated from “leprosy” which puts them far away from the Lord and from the brothers/sisters.
The fourth paradox of the story is an invitation to reflect on the salvific efficacy of the word pronounced by Jesus. The lepers invoke him from a distance (vv. 11-12). They cannot go near him. Will he manage to perceive their desperate cry? Will he do something in their favor or will the distance block him to intervene? These are the doubts, the fears which harass the ten lepers but also the Christians of Luke’s community. They do not have the fortune to materially approach the Teacher; and they doubt, which is also another obstacle.
We are convinced that when Jesus was near, when he was walking along the roads of Palestine, it was possible to approach him, touch him and talk to him. He paid attention to all, listening to every request for help and with his word, cured every disease. But now that he is no longer visible in this world and “far away”: does he incline his ears to us? Is he still interested in our “leprosy?” Is he able to save also “from a distance?”
Luke’s answer to his Christians and to us is simple: It is not the distance that can impede our prayers of arriving to him. There are no desperate situations that, with his word, even pronounced “from a distance” he could not solve. The word that heals every kind of “leprosy” continues to be announced today and its efficacy remains intact. It is enough to trust in him, like that Samaritan leper to whom Jesus acknowledges: “Your faith has saved you” (v. 19).
The ten lepers were cured along the way. Why doesn’t Jesus heal them immediately—as he always does—and not send them to the priests afterward for the prescribed verification of the law? Does he want to put their gratitude to the test?
A theological message is certainly tied to this detail of the episode. In the New Testament, Christian life is compared to an “itinerary,” a long and tiresome journey. The healing of “leprosy” which makes us feel so far from God, rejected by the brothers/sisters and despised by our own conscience—we know and verify it each day—does not happen all at once. It comes progressively and requires a whole life. Jesus invites us to walk this way with patience, serenity, optimism and guided at every step by his word. Along the way, those who have faith will verify the sensation. They will gradually see “his skin becoming as that of a child’s” as it happened to Naaman.
We have arrived at the most difficult point of the story: why only one returned to give thanks? Why did Jesus complain about the behavior of the other nine when he himself ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests? Who disobeyed? Was it not perhaps the Samaritan?
Let us assume that the other nine returned later to offer thanks. They first went to the priests to hasten the “formalities” of verification and to be re-admitted to the community life. Then they ran back to their families and surely returned to Jesus. This is the only logical reconstruction of the facts. And why did Jesus lament?
He does not speak of thanksgiving; he is not saddened because he verified a lack of gratitude. It says that only the Samaritan gave glory to God, that is, the only one who understood immediately that the salvation of God comes to people through Christ. He is the only one who acknowledged not only the good received but also the intermediary chosen by God to communicate his gifts. He desired to proclaim it before all, his gratitude and discovery. The others were not bad, only that they were not immediately aware of the novelty. They continued to follow the traditional way: they thought that one arrived to God through ancient religious practices, through the priests of the temple.
Jesus remains surprised that his fellow Jews, even though used to reading the Sacred Scriptures and educated by the prophets, were preceded by a Samaritan in acknowledging the Messiah of God.
The fact of the healing of the ten lepers is reread by Luke as a parable, as an image of what happened in his time: the heretics, pagans, and sinners were the first ones to recognize in Jesus the mediator of God’s salvation.
Fernando Armellini
Italian missionary and biblical scholar
https://sundaycommentaries.wordpress.com
