Gospel: 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.”
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Reflection:
Are you
grateful for whatever you have in life? Do you express this gratefulness to
God? In our gospel for today we read about the ungratefulness of the nine
lepers for the reason that they failed to go back to Jesus to express their gratitude.
Were the nine lepers really ungrateful or they were simply busy in complying
with the command of Jesus for them to go to a priest?
We never
know the reason but one thing is certain the nine Jews failed to seize the
moment to personally thank Jesus and be up close and personal with Him. If the Samaritan
who was not a member of Jesus faith took time to went back to Jesus to express
his gratefulness. Why couldn’t they do it also?
What
happens to us when we are grateful? The blessings of God keeps coming to us
this does not say that God has favorites among us for we are all equal before
His eyes. But humanly speaking when we are grateful the more that the giver is
motivated to give more to us.
How do we
prove this? For example if we are the giver of the blessing would we not unceasingly
give to those who express their appreciation? As opposed to those who do not know
how to appreciate the things that we do for them?
Jesus
even if He is God the son has a human side also and part of His human side was
His longing for the nine whom he had cured. Perhaps not anymore seeking from
them to hear their words of gratitude. But in a deeper sense Jesus was looking
for the nine so that He could have an up close and personal encounter with them.
Like
Jesus longing for the nine cured lepers, Jesus is also yearning for us; we who
always receive the miracle of life in every morning that we wake-up.
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