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"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
These ten lepers came to Jesus as outcasts from society, forbidden to be close to others, and stood at a distance, shouting in order to plea for the healing they desired. Even great men of the world like Naaman could be brought low by a disease such as leprosy, made desperate, willing to try anything, even advice from hearsay about a prophet in Israel in order to be cured.
She said to her mistress, “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (see Second Kings 5:3).
Although they were lepers are forced to stay at a distance the word of God was not chained, but was able to reach across the divide, healing, and reintegrating them into the common life and worship of Israel.
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.
It was a great thing to be made a part of the worshipping community once more, able to enter in to the prayers and the sacrifices, able to be together with family and friends, to work and to sustain oneself in life day-to-day. And the greatness of this result is what preoccupied nine of those who were healed. Only an outsider, a Samaritan, realized this was something more significant than being restored to a normal life. It was something that was merited him making the effort to go back, to retrace his steps, to acknowledge, and to give thanks. The healing was one thing, freedom from the disease's stigma something else again, but beyond all of that how could he ignore this one through whom the healing had come?
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
It can be like this in our own day and age. Those who are outsiders to the Christian tradition and who experience the healing power of Jesus are frequently more able to realize the profound gift they have been given, and, realizing it, to fall in love with the giver. Those of us who have grown accustomed to the Christian life happily receive gifts, but often without being much impressed by them. And make no mistake, we do receive amazing gifts even daily, especially in the Holy Eucharist. But even such gifts as these do not call from us a response like that of an outsider noticing for the first time the healing touch of Jesus.
What was the secret of the outsider that allowed him to have this appropriate posture of thankfulness? And how can we adopt it so as to avoid the risk of complacency or indifference in our own walk of faith? Seemingly the secret was to realize that in the gift was a revelation of the giver, a revelation more easily received by outsiders who knew they didn't know the Lord. But it is available to us as well. In fact, the point of curing the leprosy was only secondarily that they might be restored to a normal life. The primary point was the revelation of the power of the God of Israel.
Naaman said: "If you will not accept,
please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth,
for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice
to any other god except to the LORD."
When we receive blessings from the Lord let us not simply return to life as before. Let us take with us, in humility, mule-loads of earth, our own little piece of the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem from which to offer worship and thanks. Let us not simply depart with the gifts, but learn from them the greatness of the giver. We are free, if we choose, to simply return to the routine of worship, to the priests and the temple. But there is something better, something more alive, that we are called to recognize, and into which we are called to enter. In reality, we are not simply restored to what we were before, we are transformed into something new and better in Christ. His own resurrection was more the a resuscitation from death, it brought him into a new life of glory. This glory is meant to be our own path and destiny as well. The way to stay on this path is to have our own awareness filled with the Lord's revelation and to make our response, like that of Naaman and the Samaritan, one of thanks.
If we have died with him
we shall also live with him;
if we persevere
we shall also reign with him.
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