Gospel Reflection 2021/2022

The healing of the ten lepers.

For many Sundays, we have been hearing Jesus’ teaching on the mysteries of God and His Kingdom. And on this 28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Church reminds us that Jesus has come to us in person, in presence and in power: He reveals Himself as God, Son, Master and Saviour – not only through His profound words – but also through His powerful works.

Healing begins with faith.

The Gospel reading this Sunday [Lk 17: 11-19] recalls the healing of the ten lepers by Jesus. Lepers, in the Jewish tradition, are considered as sinners, unclean and outcasts punished by God. They are to be quarantined and kept away from the clean and the virtuous. They suffer the stigma, rejection, humiliation, discrimination and injustices. The lepers must have heard of Jesus, His life, His words and His works. They must have been longing and desiring to meet Jesus. They wanted to be healed. And when Jesus entered the village, they hastened to meet Him. Knowing their own iniquities, their own brokenness and their filthiness, they stood at a distance and shouted to Jesus, “Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!”

Jesus comes to us too. He comes to us every day and every moment of our lives. Above all, Jesus comes to us – in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, i.e., the Holy Mass.

How much do I long for Jesus?

How much do I desire Him?

How much do I desire to be healed?

Do I hasten to Mass to meet Him there?

Our healing begins with faith. Jesus, in the Gospel reading last Sunday [Lk 17: 5-10], reminded us that, “Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to the mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Such is the power of faith: ‘Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ [Heb 11: 1] Faith is an assurance (binding promise), not an insurance (backup plan). We walk by faith, we live by faith. St Augustine of Hippo beautifully says, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”

Healing requires a persistent heart.

In most miraculous healing cases by Jesus in the Gospel – the ten lepers this Sunday [Lk 17: 11-19], the paralytic man and his four friends [Mk 2: 1-12], the haemorrhaging woman who touches the clothes of Jesus [Mk 5: 25-34], the blind Bartimaeus at Jericho [Mk 10: 46-52], etc. – they always involve a persistent heart which is:

(1) torched by an intense awareness of God and self,

(2) fuelled by a burning desire to be healed,

(3) reaching out to God for help.

No one, who comes to Jesus with the sincerity of heart, will not be healed, changed or transformed, in one way or another.

Healing is in God’s time and in God’s way.

Healing is from God and by God, in His time and in His way. God does whatever He sees and thinks fits.

(1) Some healings are INSTANTANEOUS as in the cases of the paralytic man and his four friends [Mk 2: 1-12], the haemorrhaging woman who touches the clothes of Jesus [Mk 5: 25-34], and the blind Bartimaeus at Jericho [Mk 10: 46-52].

(2) Some healings are GRADUAL as in the case of the ten lepers this Sunday, ‘as they were going away they were cleansed’ [Lk 17: 14]. In the case of Naaman the leper in the First Reading [2 Kg 5: 14-17], he has to follow Elisha’s instruction to go and immerse himself seven times in the Jordan river. Naaman believed and did what he was told, not one time but seven times, and he was cleansed.

(3) Some healings are ‘SEEMINGLY’ NOT HAPPENING as in the case of St Paul [2 Co 12: 7-10]: he was given ‘a thorn in the flesh’, three times he appealed to the Lord that ‘the thorn’ would leave him. Instead, the Lord told him [2 Co 12: 9], “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Though St Paul’s prayer was not granted – though he could still be tormented physically, mentally and psychologically by ‘the thorn’ – yet, he had received so much spiritual healings and spiritual consolations that he could hold his head high and his chest up saying [2 Co 12: 9-10], “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

“Were not all ten made clean?” [Lk 17: 17]

Ten lepers were cleansed: nine went away without returning to Jesus. Only one Samaritan leper ‘turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him’ [Lk 17: 15-16]. A leper is an outcast; a Samaritan leper is an outcast of the outcast. And surprisingly, only the outcast of the outcasts, recognised the divinity of Jesus and returned to thank Him.

Every day and every moment of our lives, the miracles of life take place. Like the nine lepers, we overlook and go away without recognising God’s active presence in our lives. More often than not, our hearts are coarse, our minds are dull, our eyes are closed, our ears are sealed, and our consciences are numbed – we fail to recognise Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God-with-us.

According to St Ignatius of Loyola, gratitude is the best response to our encounter with the Divine. Having encountered God and experienced His infinite love and immeasurable mercy, a person can only response with great gratitude.

Miracles of healing in the Sacraments.

Today, Jesus continues to reach out to us with His healing touch through the Church and the various ministries, the Sacraments and the sacramentals, the scriptures and rites, the liturgies and the prayers, the chants and the hymns…

Let us not undermine the powerful Sacraments of Healing instituted by Jesus Himself: the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Even though the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is one of the Sacraments of Initiation, it still carries with it the healing power of Jesus through the Sacred Word, and the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Through faith, God will heal us. Through faith, God will save us. With great faith, let us always be ‘joyful in hope, patient in tribulations, and constant in prayer’ [Rm 12: 12]. May we experience God’s healing power every day and every moment, and return to the Holy Eucharist (meaning ‘Thanksgiving’) – with heart-felt gratitude – to praise God at the top of our voices, to worship and thank Him for all the great things He has done for us.

Let our fervent prayer be:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us!”

Let us also pray that God’s justice, peace, truth and love may prevail in Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Nicaragua.