As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
“Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.” (Lk 17:11-19)
Today’s Gospel is one of the stories of Jesus that has always amazed me.
A leper.
Can you imagine being a leper?
There was nothing worse than that in the society back then.
A leper was a total pariah. He was banished from the community. He could not mingle with any “clean” person ever again. The only people he could associate himself with were other lepers.
To see himself — and those around him — slowly decaying and dying was a nightmare.
How then, when ten lepers presently themselves to Jesus and were healed, did only one leper recognize that he had, indeed, been healed?!
Presumably the other nine were so wrapped up in themselves that they never realized that their condition in life had changed. They were so wrapped up in their misery that they would not allow themselves the belief that God had entered their lives.
Sound far-fetched?
Not really.
There are many times that we go along in life so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we do not realize God when we see Him.
For our own good, that has got to change!
FAITH ACTION: Take a good hard look at yourself and your life. How are things going? Are they better than you realized? Did you bother to thank God for that? Now might be a real good time!