returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
Don't we spend most of our lives living like the other nine who were cleansed? We receive mercy and then it is back to business as usual. What we suffered was actually worse than leprosy. Part of the problem is that we don't realize just how bad it is to be apart from grace.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded,
slaves to various desires and pleasures,
living in malice and envy,
hateful ourselves and hating one another.
There may be some among us who, like the Little Flower, never committed a mortal sin and willing turned away from God. But even such people have moments when they do not fully embrace the grace God is offering. In a small way, they are investing in the same temporary things that eventually end in death. They are constituting their existence based on things which must eventually fall away. This is true leprosy. We do not sufficiently recoil at the horror of it. We seek the cure but fail to fully appreciate it.
But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared
The love of Jesus makes us whole. It renews and restores us but it does not simply reassemble us. It becomes within us a source of life.
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit
Lepers eventually die. But so do all who are under the sway of sin. Only those whom Jesus cures become "heirs in hope of eternal life." This is why we return to him and give thanks!
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
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