Winston Churchill loved to tell the story of the little boy who fell off a pier into deep ocean water. An older sailor, heedless of the great danger to himself, dove into the stormy water, struggled with the boy, and finally, exhausted, brought him to safety. Two days later the boy’s mother came with him to the same pier, seeking the sailor who had rescued her son. Finding him, she asked, "You dove into the ocean to bring my boy out?" "I did," he replied. "Then where’s his hat?" demanded the mother. In today’s gospel Jesus tells the story of nine ungrateful lepers.


Introduction: By describing Jesus’ miraculous healing of the ten lepers from a physically devastating and socially isolating disease, today’s gospel presents a God who desires gratitude from us for the many blessings we receive from Him, and who feels pain at our ingratitude. Naaman the Syrian military General in the first reading was not only an outcast because of his illness; he was also a non-Israelite. But he returned to thank Elisha for the cure and, in gratitude, transferred his allegiance to the God of Israel. The gospel story tells of a single Gentile leper (a “Samaritan heretic”) who returned to thank Jesus for healing him, while the nine Jewish lepers went their way under the false impression that healing was their right as God’s chosen people. They did not seem to feel indebted to Jesus for the singular favor they had received. Instead, they hurried off to obtain a health certificate from the priests. “Where are the other nine?” Jesus asked the Gentile leper. “Did only one come back to say 'Thank you'?” Today’s readings present faith and healing going hand in hand, as do faith and reconciliation. It was faith that prompted Naaman to plunge himself into the waters of the Jordan River; and it was in faith that those who were cured went to present themselves to the priests. The readings also demonstrate the universal love of God for all peoples including the Samaritans whom Israelites hated and Naaman who represented the Syrians, pagan enemies of Israel.

Exegesis: Leprosy as God’s punishment: Jesus was on the border between Galilee and Samaria when He was met by a band of ten lepers. The band included both Jews and Samaritans who were drawn together by their common misery and who ignored their traditional enmity. Biblical “leprosy,” many scholars believe, only rarely included Hansen’s disease (leprosy proper). Mostly, they think, the conditions were other skin diseases like ringworm, psoriasis, leucoderma, and vitiligo. The suffering of lepers in Biblical times was chiefly due to the way they were treated by the religious society of the day. They were deemed unclean, unfit to be counted among a people who considered themselves “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). “Leprosy” was a terrible disease because its victims were separated from their families and society. Lepers were treated as sinners, punished by God with a contagious disease. The punishment given to Miriam (the complaining sister of Moses in Numbers 12:9-10), to Gehazi (the greedy servant of the prophet Elijah: “The leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever" II Kings 5: 27) and to the king Uzziah (for burning incense in the temple, a right reserved for priests, Chronicles 26:19) supported this Jewish belief that leprosy was God’s punishment for sins.

Mosaic restrictions on lepers: The Mosaic Law, as given in Leviticus 13: 44-46, demanded that a) the priest should declare the leper unclean, b) the leper should keep his garments rent and his head bare, c) should muffle his beard and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean,' and d) should dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp. The Book of Numbers 5:2-3, commanded the Israelites "to put out of the camp everyone who is leprous." Over 3000 words in Leviticus (chapters 13-14) govern the inspection of suspected lepers, their isolation, and the procedure for declaring the healed leper clean. As a general rule, when a Jewish leper was healed, he had to go to the local priest to confirm that he was now clean and was permitted to mix with the general public.

The parallels: The Fathers of the Church note three parallels between the Gospel story and the story of Naaman, the Gentile who was also healed of leprosy. First, both Naaman and the Samaritan leper were foreigners who sought healing from a Godly Jew. Second, both were ordered to perform a small, seemingly irrelevant action. Elisha told Naaman to bathe in the river Jordan seven times. Jesus told the ten lepers to show themselves to the priest, who could certify a healing. In both stories, healing took place only after they obeyed. Third, both Naaman and the Samaritan returned to praise God.

The Samaritan hero: A Samaritan is presented as the model of faith and gratitude. Luke was himself a Gentile, a foreigner and so he delighted in recounting stories of foreigners whom God had blessed. The thanks and praise of the Samaritan was a natural response to the free and undeserved mercy of God. He knew that knew he was in the "wrong" place at the "right" time, and such an opportunity might never occur again for him. The Samaritan had not earned the kindness of God. He simply asked for it--and it was freely given. He knew he couldn't earn it; he was an outcast, a Samaritan. Having accepted God's grace, thanks and praise was his natural response. Both the author of 2 Kings and the Evangelist Luke wanted to make an important theological point about outsiders. No story in all the gospels so poignantly shows man's ingratitude. The lepers came to Jesus with desperate longing, and the merciful Lord cured them. But nine of them never came back to give thanks.

Ingratitude and gratitude: In both the Old Testament and the New Testaments, God laments over man’s ingratitude. “Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the LORD speaks: Sons have I raised and reared, but they have disowned me! An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master's manger; But Israel does not know, my people have not understood. Ah! Sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children! They have forsaken the LORD, spurned the Holy One of Israel and apostatized” (Isaiah; 1: 2-4). “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11). Hence, the Word of God invites us to be thankful. At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me” (John 11:41). St. Paul advises us: “Give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5: 20). “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3: 17). Psalms 107:1 advises us: "Give thanks to the LORD who is good, whose love endures forever!" The medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart suggests that if the only prayer we say in our lifetime is "Thank You," that would suffice.

Messages: 1) Learn to be thankful to God and to others. Often we are ungrateful to God. Although we receive so much from Him, we often take these things for granted without appreciating His gifts. We allow the negatives of our lives hide the blessings we have received. For example we may have health problems or financial worries, we may be on bad terms with a relative, a neighbor or co-worker, and we may be upset with a strained relationship with our spouse or with our child's grades or behavior. Besides, we are often thankful only when we compare ourselves with less fortunate people. In times of need, we pray with desperate intensity, but as time passes we forget God. Many of us fail to offer a grace before meals or allot a few minutes of the day for family prayer. God gave us his only Son, but we seldom give Him a word of thanks. It seems that healing the human heart of ingratitude is a greater miracle than healing the skin of leprosy. Often we are ungrateful to our parents and consider them a nuisance, although in the past we were dependent on them for literally everything. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!” Shakespeare wrote in King Lear. Similarly, we owe a great debt of gratitude to our friends, teachers, doctors, pastors--but we often fail to thank them. Hence, in the future, let us be filled with daily thanksgiving to God and to others for the countless gifts we have received. Let us pray: "Please, God--heal my heart of ingratitude."

2) Celebrate the Holy Eucharist as the supreme act of thanksgiving: The word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is the attitude we should adopt in worship. When we celebrate the Holy Mass together, we are thanking God for the great gift of his Son whose sacrifice formed us into the People of God. We thank God for the gift of the Spirit, through which we bring the presence of the Lord to others. Saying thanks together with the parish community, sharing the food of thanksgiving, the Holy Eucharist, is the least we can do every Sunday in response to God's blessings. Let us thank God for the gift of our own lives, for those who love us and for those whom we love.

3) We all need healing from our spiritual leprosy. Although we may not suffer from physical leprosy, we may suffer from the "spiritual leprosy" of sin. Is there something in our lives that we carry with us that keeps us unclean? Jesus is our Savior who wants to heal us. Since Jesus is not afraid to touch our deepest impurities, let us not hide them from Him. Just as the lepers cried out to Jesus for healing, let us also ask Him to heal us from the spiritual leprosy of sins. The reconciling ministry of the church today requires commitment to a long-term mission to free ourselves and those who would harm us from deep-seated hatreds and prejudice.

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What Use Are Miracles?
Commentary for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap

ROME, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- While Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, 10 lepers met him at the entrance to a village. Staying at a distance they call out to him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Jesus has pity on them and says to them: "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

Along the way the 10 lepers discover themselves to be miraculously cured. The first reading also tells of a miraculous healing of a leper: that of Naaman the Syrian by the prophet Elisha. The liturgy's intention is clearly to invite us to reflect on the meaning of miracles and in particular of miracles that bring about the cure of a sickness.

Let us say that prerogative to do miracles is one of the most attested in Jesus' life. Perhaps the most dominant idea that the people had of Jesus during his life, more dominant than that of a prophet, was that of a miracle worker. Jesus himself presents this fact as proof of the Messianic authenticity of his mission: "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised" (cf. Matthew 11:5). Miracles cannot be eliminated from Jesus' life without destroying the plot of the whole Gospel.

Together with accounts of the miracles, Scripture offers us criteria for judging their authenticity and purpose. In the Bible, miracles are never ends in themselves; much less are they supposed to elevate the person who does them and show off his extraordinary powers, as is almost always the case with healers and wonder workers who advertise themselves. Miracles are rather an incentive for and a reward of faith. It is a sign and it must serve to draw attention to what it signifies. This is why Jesus is saddened when, after having multiplied the loaves of bread, he sees that they did not understand what this was a sign of (cf. Mark 6:51).

In the Gospel itself, miracles are ambiguous. Sometimes they are regarded positively and sometimes negatively -- positively, when they are welcomed with gratitude and joy, when they awaken faith in Christ and hope in a future world without sickness and death; negatively, when they are asked for or demanded for faith. "What sign do you do that we might believe in you?" (John 6:30). This ambiguity continues in a different form in today's world. On the one hand, there are those who seek out miracles at all costs; it is always a hunt for the extraordinary, and people stop at their immediate utility. On the other hand, their are those who deny miracles altogether; indeed they look upon miracles with a certain irritation, as if it were a manifestation of degenerate religiosity, without recognizing that in doing so they are pretending to teach God himself what is true religiosity and what isn't.

Some recent debates that have arisen around the Padre Pio phenomenon have shown how much confusion is still around today about miracles. It is not true, for example, that the Church considers every unexplainable event a miracle (we know that even the medical world is full of this!). It considers as miracles only those unexplainable facts that, because of the circumstances in which they take place (which are rigorously ascertained), have the character of a divine sign, that is, they give confirmation to someone or an answer to a prayer. If a woman, who is without pupils from birth begins to see at a certain point while still being without pupils, this can be cataloged as an unexplainable fact. But if this happens while she is confessing to Padre Pio, as did in fact happen, then it is no longer possible to speak simply of an unexplainable fact.

Our atheist friends with their critical attitude in regard to miracles make a contribution to faith itself because they make us attentive to easy falsifications in this area. But they too must guard against an uncritical attitude. It is just as mistaken always to believe whatever is claimed as a miracle as it is always to refuse to believe without looking at the evidence. It is possible to be credulous but it is also possible to be ... incredulous, which is not very different.

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Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for this Sunday are 2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; and Luke 17:11-19.