The cleansing of the 10 lepers

Our Sunday gospel today teaches us not only about gratitude to God, but that our Lord Jesus Christ shows his compassion not just to the chosen ones of Israel, but he also helps hated foreigners like the Samaritans, perhaps to prove that God is the Lord of all the people and his creation. You can read it in Luke 17:11-19.

“As [Jesus] continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten lepers met [him]. They stood at a distance from him 13 and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” 14 And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”

As they were going they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; 18 and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? 18 Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? 19 Then he said to him, “stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

When our Lord Jesus Christ went to a village, ten lepers met him there. In ancient times, lepers were not allowed to roam around villages, because their disease (Hansen’s disease) was highly contagious. Lepers are usually rounded up and placed in leper colonies, like what we used to have in Consolacion. So it was a bit unusual that ten lepers would be roaming the streets when our Lord Jesus encountered them. Quite possibly, the lepers had prior knowledge that this Jesus of Nazareth who was known to cure the sick and the lame was going to their village, which is why they left their colony and went into the village to see the Lord.

When they met the Lord, they did not come close to Jesus, but shouted to the Lord to show pity to them. The instruction of Jesus was simply, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” As they went on their way, they were cleansed. Why did our Lord Jesus ask the lepers to go and show themselves to the priests? Leprosy is often associated to spiritual uncleanliness, something of a curse from God. If one gets miraculously cured, Mosaic law ordains that it is the priest who can validate or ascertain that they are now spiritually clean and they can go back to their community.

In a way, this also shows that even if our prayers asking for good health is given to us by God, we should still tell the priest about this blessing, that God answered our prayers. Often, our Christian brethren insist that when we already have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no need for priests. In fact, they don’t even need a church, which is why a lot of them broke away from the Catholic Church.

Of course, they conveniently forgot that our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matt.16:18 our Lord Jesus said, “And so I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” Ask yourself, how many organizations, kingdoms, governments or institutions continue to exist today that was created 2,000 years ago? The only such institution is the Catholic Church because God himself said it very clearly in scripture, “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

God knows that CNN, BBC and even our national TV networks go to extreme lengths to expose those priests or bishops involved in sex scandals in many parts of the world, including the Philippines. They think that by exposing those sexual offenders, it would destroy the Catholic Church. Yet we recognize one reality that priests and bishops are just as human as you and me. They too commit sins just like you and me. No one ever said that the Catholic Church is perfect. Even within the closest friends of our Lord Jesus, the 12 Apostles, one of them turned against him.

When the ten lepers were cleansed and one of the lepers realized what was happening to him, even before he could go to the priest, he turned back to Jesus and prostrated before him and thanked him for the great blessing that the Lord bestowed upon him. This got the Lord to ask, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? 18 Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? Only the Samaritan came back to thank Jesus.

We should ask ourselves, do we thank God only if we get our prayers answered? Few people can fathom the depth of God’s love for each and every one of us. Remember he even counts the hairs on our head. If God can feed the sparrow, he most certainly can help us human beings. All that we need to do is follow the greatest commandment to love God with all our soul, our hearts and our strength and our neighbor as ourselves.

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