by Fr. Tommy Lane
We know all about quarantine and social distancing, having been through the pandemic. Those with the disease that the Gospels call “leprosy” also knew all about quarantine and social distancing. We read the rules for their quarantine in the Old Testament in Leviticus 13. They had to live outside their town in a cave or whatever they could find. Whenever they were near others, they had to warn people by crying out, “unclean, unclean.” (Lev 13:45) They were cut off from their families, from their communities, and from worshipping with their local community. If their skin healed, they had to go to their local Jewish priest who would declare them healed so they could return to their family and community.
As Jesus was about to enter a village, Luke tells us in today’s Gospel (Luke 17:11-19), ten lepers stood at a distance. Jesus was certainly not afraid to touch someone with this skin disease; we read earlier in the Gospels of a leper who knelt before Jesus asking for healing and Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and he was healed. (Matt 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16) But these ten lepers did not approach Jesus; they were practicing social distancing and had to raise their voices to ask Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus told them to simply go to the priests. They were healed as they went on the way.
One man returned to thank Jesus. Now that he had been healed, he no longer practiced social distancing and went right up to Jesus and prostrated before Jesus thanking God. He had asked for healing in a loud voice and now he glorified God in a loud voice (Luke 17:11, 13). He did not complain or grumble because he had suffered a long time with his skin disease; he gave thanks to God. Like him, we give thanks to God here every Sunday. The word “Eucharist” is a Greek word which means “thanksgiving.” Just as the healed leper had much for which to be grateful, we have much for which to be grateful. We pray the Gloria at the beginning of Mass giving praise to God. In the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God” and you respond, “It is right and just.” In the Second Eucharistic Prayer after the consecration, part of the priest’s prayer to our heavenly Father is:
giving thanks
that you have held us worthy
to be in your presence and minister
to you.
In the Third Eucharistic Prayer, after the consecration, part of the priest’s prayer to our heavenly Father is:
we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.
When we celebrate the Eucharist, in thanksgiving we unite ourselves with Jesus’ offering of himself to our Father on Calvary for us. We give this time to God every week in thanksgiving for all God has done for us, above all in Jesus giving his life on Calvary in exchange for our sins.
The nine men not returning reminds us that all the problems of the Old Testament occurred when people forgot all that God had done for them. That is what lead to the chaos we see from time to time in Israel in the Old Testament. I think we could say two things prompted them to forget what God had done for them: having to endure suffering of some kind or becoming prosperous, relatively speaking. When the ten lepers were healed by Jesus, nine didn’t return to thank Jesus; they had gotten what they wanted and didn’t have time for God then. Their healing was the relative prosperity that made them forget about God.
What about us when suffering comes our way? In our second reading, Paul in prison for preaching the Gospel, or someone with Paul’s thoughts, wrote:
I bear with
everything for the sake of those who are chosen,
so that they too
may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim 2:10)
Paul offered his suffering—being in prison—to God for the salvation of others. When suffering comes our way and we find it difficult to praise God, can we too offer our suffering to God for the salvation of others? Surely that is praising and giving glory to God. We can offer our sufferings and crosses to Our Lady to give to Jesus for the salvation of others. St. Louis-Marie de Montfort wrote that when we give merits, graces, and virtues to Our Lady to give to Jesus, she will augment and embellish them. (Treatise on True Devotion p84 in 1863 edition)
As the healed leper went on his way, Jesus said to him, “your faith has saved you.” (Luke 17:19) He was healed of skin disease, but Jesus said his faith had saved him. He had found salvation because we are a unity of body and soul, mind and spirit and this man had his life in sync—his healing and his relationship with God. When we have our lives in sync before God—body and soul, mind and spirit—then we too have found salvation. When stay close to God in suffering or prosperity then we too have found salvation. When we unite our sufferings with Jesus on the cross for the salvation of others, we too find salvation. The good thief on the cross beside Jesus found salvation in the last moments of his life as he got his life in sync on the cross. We find salvation as we praise God during this Eucharist giving thanks to God for what Jesus did for us.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2022
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Year C
Saved by Jesus 2016
Related Homilies: Jesus became like a Leper for us all 2021
Today’s Gospel in the context of Luke 2007
Saint Damien lived and died with lepers
Scripture Commentary: Jesus' Ministry to the Samaritans (on page 2)