28th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 17:12-19

In the Gospel reading for today, our Lord Jesus Christ is on his way toward Jerusalem when he passes through a certain village. Here is encounters ten lepers, who stand at a distance and cry out “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

These ten men were afflicted with the most miserable of diseases – leprosy – which progressively destroyed their bodies and caused great sorrow, isolation, and pain. Hearing of the miraculous healing powers of our Lord, they were hopeful that He would have pity on them and cure them of their misery.

When our Lord heard their cry, he did indeed show tender pity for them and commanded them to go show themselves to the priests. He sent them immediately to the priests because it was necessary for the priests to examine and pronounce a man clean before he would be accepted back into society. Our Lord, in His mercy and wisdom, sent them to the priests straight away in order to assure that they would enjoy the speediest restoration not only of their health, but of their acceptance back into society. 

Only one of these ten men returned to find our Lord and to fall before Him in gratitude and praise. As he fell down before the feet of our Lord, Jesus asked him, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?’ And He said to Him, ‘Arise, go your way, your faith has made you whole.’

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Gospel story of the ten lepers is the story of mankind… it is the story of you and me.

Mankind, through our pride, has fallen and our nature is diseased with the leprosy of sin. Throughout the centuries of the Old Testament times, mankind stood afar off like the ten lepers, and cried out to God that He might have pity on us. And God heard the cries of mankind and sent to us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to break us from the bondage of sin and to heal us from our spiritual disease. This appearance of our Lord is the healing event for which we are fasting and awaiting… the Nativity of Christ – which shines forth upon the world the Light of Grace and makes possible the restoration of mankind.

Blessed indeed are we who have all of the things necessary for our healing here before us. And yet, how do we behave? Are we like the nine lepers who received the gift of healing from our Lord and thoughtlessly went on their way?

On the feasts of the Church and on the weekly evening vigil and morning liturgy services, do we fail to return to the feet of our Lord in gratitude, causing Him to say ‘Where are you’? When a new day is dawning and it is time for the prayers of morning-time, where are we to be found? Do we just take the blessing of a new day for granted and mindlessly go about our business because we have no time for God? And throughout our day, God is watching over us and interceding for us in ways that we don’t even know about – do we stop to give him praise? When the day is over and it is time to settle down to sleep, do we neglect to turn our thoughts back to God? In all these cases, and at all times, our Lord is there awaiting us in the chapel of our heart. Are we like the nine who cause our Lord to say ‘Where are you?’

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t let this be so! Gratitude is an important virtue and it demonstrates the proper sense of truly understanding who we are and who God is. Expressing our thankfulness is more than just a courtesy… it is a disposition of the heart and it is the opening up of a relationship between two persons. The most important difference about the one man who returned to thank our Lord is not that he showed courtesy to the One Who gave him the gift of his health. What did this man gain that the others did not? All ten of them gained their physical health, but only the one who returned to express his gratitude heard the words of the Lord: ‘Your faith has made you whole’. This man received not only physical healing, but spiritual healing as well. This is part of the mystery and the importance of a grateful heart… it is the grateful heart that is open to the Lord and that enters into a living and loving relationship with Him that heals and restores us completely.

Let us do everything within our power to imitate the one good servant among the ten lepers who were healed. Let us daily acknowledge and give God thanks for His mercy and for His promise of the restoration for our soul. Let us struggle and have fear to neglect that sense of gratitude and awareness of the goodness of God. May we frequently run to return back to Him, falling at His feet and thanking Him. Doing so, may our hearts be open to Him and may we hear the words which he gave to that one faithful and grateful servant, ‘Arise and go, your faith has made you whole.’