To many of us, today’s gospel is probably one of the simplest and most familiar stories from the Bible. During Jesus’ time lepers were society’s despised outcasts. They were compelled to live outside villages. If and when they came near other people they had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean”. Else, anyone they touched also became unclean. That’s why these ten lepers called out to Jesus from a distance saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
When Jesus heard the lepers’ shout, he turned to them and simply responded with instructions to go and show themselves to the priests. The text says that as they were going to the priests all the ten lepers were healed of their condition. But, surprisingly, only one of the ten cured lepers returned to give thanks to Jesus, and he was a Samaritan.
Cardinal John Newman, who will be canonized in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City today, in this way he comments this gospel: “Were not ten cleansed? Does not this event seem strange? Yet how thankless we are. When we gain our object, we suddenly leave off our prayers and coldly accept the favour. But still we may show our gratitude by deeds and by recurrent remembrance. We might remember the day; we might perpetuate our gratitude like Samaritan.”
There are three lessons that can be learned from this story:
1. Like leprosy, sin makes us unclean before God and others. In addition sin distances and ruptures our relationship with God and others. Therefore, let us humbly first of all, acknowledge our desperate sinful condition before God and, really call out to Jesus, as the ten lepers did, that we are unclean and, we are in need of His mercy.
2. The lepers knew Jesus by name, but they called Him Master, acknowledging His authority over their disease and them. Let us courageously and confidently raise our voice and cry out to Him in our time of need, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” and our gracious Lord Jesus who is full of mercy will come to our rescue.
3. Only one of the lepers, a Samaritan, returned to give thanks to Jesus. He came back, “glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell at Jesus’ feet, with his face down and gave thanks to Him”, Luke (17:15-16). Gratitude [said Newman] is even a kind of love and leads to love. Survey your life, and you will find it a mass of mercies.