Together with last Sunday’s gospel reading on being dutiful servants, the account by Saint Luke about the healing of the 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19) form a sequence on the absolute gratuitousness of salvation from which no one is a priori excluded. The narration underlines the role of faith that gives thank and praise in the saving relationship that God makes available to the believer.
Not excluded from faith
Leprosy was a generic term in the ancient world covering any and all skin ailments, such as rashes and skin eruption of any type. In those cases when the condition was actually Hansen’s disease, fear of contamination called for strict regulations. Banned from villages and towns, the afflicted persons usually lived in bands at the outskirts for the charity of the people. And inasmuch as such ailments were associated with some sins, the victims fell under both moral and ritual impurity. They must be separated from the community and were required to undergo ritual purification and certification from the authorities prior to social reintegration (Numbers 12:10-15; 2 Kings 5:27; 2 Chronicles 26:20-21). When approached by others, lepers were obliged to warn of their condition by shouting “Unclean! Unclean!”
The 10 lepers Jesus encountered outside a village as he traveled southward in the direction of Jerusalem wanted nothing but to break out of that deadening exclusion from their families and the community. They made an unexpected profession of faith in Jesus. Calling Jesus by His name, as was done also by the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42), these condemned sinners were begging for a way out of their condition and into the road to another life. They addressed Jesus as “Master,” for the lepers were convinced that Jesus was somehow God’s special servant who out of pity for them could help them and restore them to their loved ones and to the holy people of Israel. In Luke’s gospel this title stands for a confession of Jesus’ omnipotence, as Peter did before the miraculous catch (Luke 5:5) and on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured in glory (Luke 9:33), and by the apostles as they cried for help amid a raging storm at sea (Luke 8:24). In that name demons were driven out (Luke 9:49).
Faith that heals, and saves
Ordered by Jesus to present themselves to the priests who would be the ones to verify any cure and approve the restoration to the community, the lepers did not receive an instantaneous healing. They experienced the miracle only as they, in a demonstration of faith, were complying with the command of Jesus. Paradoxically, the 10 lepers who had been brought together by their misery, and have shown unanimity of faith at that point broke apart again. They rushed on to show themselves to the priests, all except one, a Samaritan, one of a despised people who was not welcome in the presence of the priests. Sick, he was welcomed into the group of Jews; healed, he was rejected again. And the Samaritan returned to the one he believed would not turn him away, to Jesus.
Glorifying
God in a loud voice, the returning supplicant “fell at the feet of Jesus and
thanked him.” This strongly liturgical behavior and language pictures a
complete faith in response to God’s gratuitous goodness. The Samaritan was
properly
“eucharistic.” “Were not all 10 made whole? Where are the other nine? Was there
no one to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?” These questions
of Jesus show that besides the importance of thanksgiving this miracle story is
supposed to highlight the universality of God’s saving love, and the contrast
between the Jews who rejected Jesus and the foreigner who accepted Him, and the
difference between being healed only and being saved, as well.
Alálaong bagá, the faith of the Samaritan was a miracle within a miracle, his coming to a faith that saves within the miraculous healing from leprosy. Ten were healed, but to one only was it said, “Your faith has saved you!” The mere experience of being made whole does not necessarily lead to an experience of salvation, which requires the acknowledgment of God’s grace-filled initiative in and through Jesus Christ, beyond the physical cure. The Jews did not graduate into such a faith in Jesus. The story anticipates the eventual rejection of Jesus by the chosen people and the dramatic reception of Him and His Gospel by the gentiles. It is remarkable that the persons thought least likely are the ones who actually recognize God’s saving presence and respond accordingly.
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