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:
What does
God require from us to be healed from our physical and emotional sickness? God
requires Faith, Humility and gratefulness.
In our
gospel, while Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem His attention was caught from
afar by ten men who were shouting with faith: Jesus master! Have pity on us! It
was not their collective shouting that caught His attention it was their
infinite faith that caught Jesus’ attention.
As a result,
the ten of them were healed but not all of them were humble and grateful enough
to appreciate the healing that they received from Jesus. Amongst them it was
only the Samaritan (a foreigner) who went back to Jesus to express his
appreciation.
Thus
Jesus said to the Samaritan: "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are
the other nine? Why did Jesus ask for the other nine? Was Jesus expecting them
to say thanks to him because He wants to be honored? Of course not! Jesus was
looking for the other nine because He wanted to see if they have the virtue of
humility and gratefulness. Unfortunately, they did not have it for they did not
return.
We have
three important lessons that we can learn from the gospel today.
First: We
must always have faith in Jesus, no matter what storms we encounter in our
lives we must always have faith, we must not lose it!
Second:
We must always humble ourselves before God by way of following His will for us
and not our own will for ourselves which is always selfish.
Third: We
must always be grateful to God for the countless blessings and miracles that He
continuously bestows upon us. We may not notice it but everyday we receive
little and big blessings from God. For example: the food on the table that He
daily gives us, the health that we have, the new life that He gives us every
morning. These to some are trivial but these are blessings from God that we
forget to realize.
Therefore,
let us always be cognizant of the fact that we must always have faith no matter
our life’s trials. We must always be humble before Him and our fellowmen for
the reason that humility is the gateway for having more blessings from God. And
lastly we must always be thankful for the little and big miracles that He
authors in our lives. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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