and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
2 Kings 5:14-17, Psalm 97: 1-4. Rv. 2, 2 Tim 2: 8-13,
Your servant will no longer offer sacrifice to any god except the Lord.
Shout to the Lord all the earth, ring out your joy.
We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful.
Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?
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.'
Are you the one or the nine?
When we hear of healing we normally think of physical healing. Today we meet the ten lepers. Though they were still alive, they were dead. Isolated and shunned they lived a life of cruel degradation. They were pariah beggars. These ten recognized Jesus and standing ‘some way off’ they called, “Jesus, Master!” They didn’t call him “Lord”. Master was just a title of respect that even his enemies used of Jesus. It was only disciples who would call him Lord. These ten did not know Jesus. Jesus tells them to go to the priests. The priests were the ones who could certify that they did not have leprosy and so could enter society again. On the way all ten were cured but how many were healed?
Only one seeing that he was cured returned to Jesus praising God at the top of his voice and he threw himself down at the feet of Jesus. To this one Jesus said: “Stand up. Your faith has saved you”. This one man was saved. Of all of them he was the only one to meet Jesus. And so he worshiped him. It is in meeting Jesus that we come to know him as Lord and are saved. We have faith when we meet Jesus face to face.
It is not enough to just go to church, we have to approach Jesus and meet him. Then we will be healed. We will receive peace and joy, be able to love and forgive. We will be able to offer sincere gratitude to Jesus for all the blessings that we have received. Since everything we are and have, is his gift, our thanksgiving will never end.
The Samaritan realized that he had been healed by God and gave praise to him. Jesus was clearly disappointed that the other nine had not come back to praise God. He wasn’t disappointed that they hadn’t come back to offer thanks to him but that they didn’t give praise to God.
When we look at ourselves and everything in our life we discover that everything is a gift of God. From our very existence, our family, friends and everything in the world, it is his entire gift to us. Our future as heirs with Christ is even more wonderful than what we have experienced so far and that is pure gift too.
Have you taken it all for granted? Have you been struck by the wonder of your being, the wonder of the promises of God given to us by Jesus? Have you tried to count your blessings and give praise to God? Or like the nine gone off about your own business oblivious to the fact that God has given you everything you have.
Father, may I realize all you have done for me out of love and praise you with a grateful heart.
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