In today’s gospel, we hear the parable of ten lepers who cry out to Jesus and ask Him to heal them. Jesus does not explicitly tell them that they are healed, but instructs them to go show themselves to the priest. In Jewish tradition, if you had leprosy you were considered perpetually unclean and were separated from the community to make sure you did not spread the disease or worship God with the community. The only people who could let you back into the community were the Jewish priests who were able to examine you and decide whether or not the disease had miraculously been healed. So when Jesus tells the lepers to go show themselves to the priest, He is implying that He is going to heal them, but He is also calling them to act in faith.
In His initial actions within the story, Jesus shows us that no matter who we are or what we have done, He desires to heal us. As we will find out later, the lepers were both Jews and Gentiles and both asked for mercy which Jesus implicitly offers to all of them. But Jesus’ healing only occurs after the men step out on faith. By heeding Jesus’ words and making the journey to see the priests, the lepers have shown in their actions that they believe that Jesus can heal him. This faith in action is a prerequisite for many of Jesus’ healings, and this one was no exception.
But what separates this healing story from the rest is the theme of thankfulness. All of the ten lepers are healed on their journey to the priest, but only one returns to Jesus in thankfulness. In fact, the story seems to suggest that the thankful leper did not even make it to the Jewish priest, but turned back to visit Jesus instead, the true high priest.
Here we see the center point on which the gospel hinges. Religious practice is supposed to be a ritualistic experience that orients us to an encounter with a person or persons (specifically God). If religion is left to just a ritualistic experience without the deepening of relationship with God, then it lacks the truest level of faith. Jesus tells us in the Gospels that He has come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Rules and regulations are meant to lead to and eventually give way to love.
The leper who returns is a prime example of this. He recognizes that the source of his healing is a person (Jesus), and he prioritizes showing gratitude to that person over fulfilling the ritualistic criteria necessary to fulfill the Jewish law. It is interesting that the Gospel notes that he was a foreigner and not Jewish. This seems to imply that it was almost easier for him to break free of slavery to the rituals than his Jewish counterparts. Yet it is in his recognition of Jesus, that he, in a sense, becomes even more ‘Jewish’ than the other lepers because he exhibits the same faith and thankfulness as the father of Judaism, Abraham. Jesus emphasizes this at the end of the passage when He tells the thankful Leper, “Go, your faith has saved you.”
It is worth noting that this story could be an allegory of all Christians throughout history. The lepers represent the whole of Christianity who recognize their brokenness and cry out to Jesus for healing. Jesus’ prescription now and always is faith within the guidelines of ritual religion that he entrusted to His Church. All are healed who believe and participate in His ritualistic worship. So for us, if we profess our faith in Jesus and enter into the worship of the body of Christ through the sacraments, we too will receive healing. However, many of us (possibly 90%) never progress any further in the spiritual life. Yet, there is a deeper level of faith that results in a personal relationship with Jesus to which we are all called. It is one that is fueled by gratitude that results in us seeking His presence. In this, we enter into the contemplation of the mystery of who God is (love) which is incredibly simple and inexplicably complex at the same time. This contemplation is a source of grace that builds the foundation of an eternal relationship with Him.
In all, very few take the path of a personal relationship with God within the context of the Church that Jesus handed down to us. Some pursue a personal relationship with Jesus without the humility of being formed by His Church. This can result in a person inventing their own version of Jesus, thus they are unable to form a deep trusting relationship with Him. Others rely on following the rules and rituals of the religion without seeking the God who gave us these guidelines. They never venture to seek the lover in favor of the ‘safety’ of the regulations. In both cases, the person relies more on themselves than they do God. But this was not the case with the thankful leper. He was humble enough to initially follow the Law, but was free enough to pursue Jesus in love, and because of that, His faith saved him. May we all have this faith.
