Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We start a new theme these weeks leading up to the end of the liturgical year, which is just before Thanksgiving weekend. I invite you to look at your ability to respond to the situations that God allows in your life. Perhaps it was a crisis or an opportunity and you had the sense of taking a step back and slowed down and made a measured response, or you did not and you have some regrets. How we have responded to the situations in life shapes who we are, and shapes our life of faith.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, to his death, which Luke’s gospel always tells us, ten lepers come to meet him and said to him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” At this time there is no cure for leprosy, and it was very painful. Lepers could not come within a certain distance of people, they had to be secluded, even from their loved ones, and worst of all, it was thought to be a punishment for sins, so lepers suffered physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
Jesus is willing to help them and said to them, “Go show yourselves to the priest,” since the priests were the only ones who could pronounce that they were healthy and could rejoin their families and communities. By the way, Jesus through this miracle is also trying to reach the priests, so that they may wonder, who is this man who is healing lepers.
So they set off for Jerusalem and on their way they notice that they were cleansed. This miracle tells us that when we respond to God he helps us. He acts in your life. Trust in him, and things happen.
The story continues when one of them saw that he was healed, returned, fell on his knees, and gave thanks. He was a Samaritan whom Jews hated. All of the lepers must have seen that they were healed but only he turned back. When things happen in your life there is a moment when you can turn back to God, or not, or you can just keep going with your life. The Samaritan turns to him and thanks him.
Jesus asks, “Were not all made clean, where are the other nine?” Jesus then says to him, “Your faith has saved you.” They were all healed of their loneliness, of their pain, of their poverty, but Jesus wanted to give them more. Their healing was just the beginning, and if they had responded even more would have been given to them.
The other nine asked for help and they were healed; the Samaritan returns and gives thanks, and his story continues. He not only is healed but now he is saved. God wants more for you and doesn’t force you, but he elicits your participation, your response.
In the next few weeks we will look at how we respond to God, and I hope take more responsibility for our walk with Christ, especially when it comes to prayer, and giving of our time and treasure. The Lord desires our worship, which helps us. Take a few minutes each day to thank God for the job you have, or the dinner you had with your family, or that the kids are safe. When you respond to him he pours out even more on you.