Wisdom 6:1-11 / Psalm 33:2-3,16-19 / Luke 17:11-19

The gospel today from Luke presents to us the encounter between Jesus and the ten lepers. These lepers approached Jesus crying out to him, ‘Jesus, Master!’ Take pity on us. Jesus responded to their desperate plight and healed them of their leprosy. As we heard, only the Samaritan retraced his steps and sought the Lord again to thank Him for what He had done.

Beloved, the unexpected gift of good health distracted the other nine so that they forgot about Jesus and failed in the normal human courtesy of returning to thank him for their cure. We can be so focused on the gift that we forget the source of the gift.

Secondly, ten lepers were healed and only the Samaritan leper came back to thank the Lord, and he was made whole by faith. Often, the outsiders more grateful to the Lord for favours received than the believing Christians. The Eucharist is one of the Lord’s great gifts to us, and our gathering for Mass is a special opportunity to turn back towards the Lord in praise and thanksgiving. We need to keep turning back to give praise and thanks to the Lord, because we are continually being graced by him, even in those times when life is a real struggle.

This is link to what we have heard in our first reading today, as this is yet another reminder that everything we have, and all that we have received, ultimately came from God, and we really should thank Him and keep in mind of whatever it is that He has entrusted to us.

Lastly, He told them to show themselves to the priests as according to the Law of Moses, they had to present themselves being healed and whole to a priest before they could be readmitted into the community. They were not healed yet and Christ ask them to go show themselves to the priest. And indeed, when they obeyed Christ, they were healed.

Beloved in Christ, when we do what we can, Christ will do for us what we cannot. The ten lepers believed and obeyed, even before they saw the fruit of their prayer. So, when we pray to the Lord, we must believe that we have already obtained the answer to our prayers; nevertheless, this requires a measure of faith on our part.