Wednesday in the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, November 10, 2021

Luke 17:11-19

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.”

This miracle is told us only by St. Luke.  We ought to pause and think of how much the four Gospels differ just in terms of content.  Luke, for instance, relates to us so many parables we do not have from the other three Evangelists.  And yet, all four paint the same portrait of the Lord.  This points to the authenticity of their witness.

In the account used for the Gospel in today’s Mass, there is nothing the Lord says or does in it that conflicts with anything we could find in the other Gospels, despite the fact that only Luke presents it to us.  The account begins with Luke reminding us that the Lord is still working his way through Galilee and Samaria — about a third of his Gospel tells us of the events and preaching on this journey.  “As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.”  We are not told if the Lord was entering a Samaritan town where he could at least obtain food if not shelter, or if he is still in Galilee.  The ten lepers approach him as he is preparing to enter the gates of the town.  They cannot go in because of their disease and must reach Jesus before he disappears.  That Luke mentions that there are ten of them may be more than telling a fact.  The number ten was a perfect number for the ancient people as it is the sum of its parts: 1+2+3+4=10.  This number signified wholeness, as though the ten lepers signified the world, or, all in the world unclean through sin.

“They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice.”  The ten lepers recognized the Lord either through a previous encounter or through someone in the crowd telling them that Jesus was coming.  They had heard of him, and maybe had heard him preach.  They knew of his power, which tells us of how widespread through Israel his reputation for healing had gotten: even the lepers had known of this in their dismal camps far outside conversation with the local inhabitants.  All the same, they would never have found Jesus if he had not gone to the town looking for them.  This is true for us as well.  “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” They do not specify in their prayer what they want from him, but will be happy no matter what he does do for them.  “And when he saw them.”  The Son of God had seen them from all eternity: their childhoods, their youth, perhaps their marriages and becoming fathers; he saw their joyous times before the leprosy struck them and caused them to lose it all, and to suffer from hunger, shame, pain, loneliness, and the everyday misery of a serious, chronic disease.  

“Go show yourselves to the priests.”  Jesus does not cure them immediately but tests their faith in order to strengthen it.  They have called him “Master”, so let them obey him at once if they believe him to be their Lord.  “As they were going they were cleansed.”  It is as they were obeying him that they are healed.  If we hope to be forgiven our sins or to be healed from some malady, we must be in a state of obedience to the Lord.  He will not forgive us if we intend to sin again for we would not be receptive of his grace.  “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice.”  How seldom we hear in the Gospels that anyone gives thanks to God for the miraculous healing they have received.  So often do we celebrate some good turn in our health or welfare and forget the One who did this for us as a sign of his love for us.  This man shows us how we should feel: “He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”  Luke then points out, “This man was a Samaritan.”  All ten might have been Samaritans as far as we know, but we only know of this man.  Luke identifies him as such because of the lesson Jesus will teach through him.  “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?”  Jesus announces to the Apostles that he had cured these ten after they had gone out of their sight, and then makes it clear that he expected all of them to return to give thanks.  “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”  The word translated here as “foreigner” does indeed have the sense of a person from another nation.  If this cure is taking place in Galilee then we can see the Samaritan as an alien because of his country of origin.  But if this is taking place in Samaria, then the Lord is speaking of him as a “foreigner”  in terms of his religion.  In both cases, it is unusual for the Samaritan to come back to give thanks to the Jewish Messiah.  His gratitude is most sincere.

“Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”  The Lord attributes faith to the Samaritan.  This is astonishing especially if the others who were healed were Jews.  The ones who should have known to be thankful, were not.  This signifies how the Gentiles would receive the Faith while the Jews, for the most part, would not.  And the fact that one out of the ten returned shows that while all in the world are redeemed by the Cross of Christ, not all will be saved.  Only those with faith will live.  Jesus tells the man with faith to stand up, as he will call the Blessed to rise from their graves on the Last Day; he will tell them that their faith has saved them; and he will tell them to “go”, that is, free from sin and filled with grace, into heaven.