Dr. John Tamilio III

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Ten Samaritans.

Ten foreigners.

Ten people who have leprosy come to Jesus to be healed — and he heals them!  Nine of the ten of them go to the Jewish priests (as Jesus instructed them).  They did so presumably to offer the “proper” sacrifices of thanksgiving for what God (embodied in Jesus) did for them.  One of the ten, however, returns to thank Jesus personally for the gift of healing.  One of them returns to thank Jesus!

Call it doing the right thing.

Call it etiquette and following the teachings of Emily Post.

Call it an attitude of gratitude.

I like the third choice.

Some people are naturally grateful.  Some are not.  But this is not about etiquette.  It is not about having polite manners.  There is much more to the story (the biblical story) than this!

Imagine what it is like to have a debilitating illness.  Some of you may have such an illness.  Some of you may have a medical condition that is with you constantly.  It may always be on your mind affecting everything you do.

Leprosy is a bit different.

Not only is this a medical condition that stays with you, but, in Jesus’ day and the centuries stretching back to the dawn of Judaism, it was a condition that made you an outcast.  People who had leprosy were considered “unclean.”  Footnote: if you read through the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the section of Scripture that is most sacred for Jews), then you will come across all sorts of cleanliness laws.  People would be “outcasts” if they had certain diseases, because, in an age that was far from having the medical knowledge that we have today, this was (in the minds of many) necessary to ensure public health.  If this seems strange to you, just think about the two years when we went through the COVID-19 pandemic.  There were certain rules about wearing masks in public, using hand sanitizer, and being quarantined if you were exposed to or contracted the Coronavirus.  And this is at a time when we have advanced medical knowledge.  In Jesus’ day having a disease made you a pariah not because people were being cruel (although some certainly were), but because the safety of the community made it necessary.

It must have been terrible to have leprosy.  Today it is called Hansen’s Disease and it is both very rare (fewer than 20,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States) and it is curable.  It causes lesions on the skin and nerve damage.  It wasn’t curable in first-century Palestine and it made people look ragged — some as if their skin was melting.  Suffice it to say, other people in the community kept their distance from you.  Lepers often lived among others with the disease in what was called leper colonies.

So now imagine having a medical condition that forced you to be isolated permanently.  You were forced to live with others who had the same disease, which meant that you were probably segregated from family members and friends.  You couldn’t work.  You couldn’t be part of any sort of social setting or gathering.  I am sure this did a number on your sense of self-worth, not to mention your psychological well-being.  In Jesus’ day (much like today) physical diseases were not just physical.  They affected people’s psychological well-being, too.  Leprosy was a horrible condition.

Ten Samaritans.

Ten foreigners.

Ten people who have leprosy come to Jesus to be healed.  That makes sense.  Word about him has been spreading.  You can almost hear the optimistic cries among the infirm.  This is the guy who heals people.  He gives sight to the blind and casts out demons.  I’m sure that he can cure leprosy!

The point of the story, though, is not that Jesus heals them, but that only one of the ten lepers returns to give Jesus thanks for doing so.  Only one.

Jesus draws attention to this fact because the truth is that he offers us all kinds of healing all the time.  Jesus showers us with blessings beyond compare.  Furthermore, in a world tied to the shackles of sin, Jesus faced the powers of evil on the cross to defeat them offering everlasting life to those who believe in him.  That goes beyond healing.  Life everlasting?  That’s the greatest gift we could possibly hope for!

The one person who returns is held-up by Jesus as being paradigmatic: he is an example for all of us to follow.  He possesses a spirit of thanksgiving for all that God has done for him.

Have you ever met someone who lives a life rooted in gratitude?  You can’t help but notice it.  It isn’t just that the person is optimistic.  In fact, optimism is something quite different.  People who are saturated with an attitude of gratitude are contagious, but not the kind of “contagious” that requires them to be in isolation.  Gratitude seems to exude from every fiber of their being.  You can almost smell it and feel it.  The best way I can describe it is that it is like a spiritual force that is prominent.  It causes those they meet to smile, and maybe to be a bit envious.  Whether we admit it or not, this person seems to possess a lightness and a joy about them that anyone would want to have.  Again, this is not about being optimistic.  It is about having a way about you (an attitude, an aura) that brings joy to others.  We are quick to say that such people are nice (which they usually are), that they have a positive attitude (which they do), and that they are a joy to be around (which they often are).

But Jesus is not some self-help guru who is simply trying to make all of us pleasant people and a joy to be around.  He’s not a motivational speaker.  He’s not writing books like I’m OK — You’re OK.  What he is saying is that God has blessed you in so many ways — ways that you cannot even fully enumerate.  Those blessings surround you and fill you.  They are everywhere.  Some are profound, like being healed.  Some are less subtle, like being loved.  Some are almost imperceptible.  You woke up today and had breakfast (a luxury to many people in the world) and you were able to come to church without the fear of possible political consequences.

If you stop and think about it, each of us should be running to Jesus every day with words of thanksgiving dripping from our lips.  I love that quote by Saint Francis of Assisi that I often pull into my homilies: preach the Gospel at all times, and, when necessary, use words.  This is not just about your actions and the fact that they speak louder than words.  It is about being filled with gratitude and letting others see it, letting others feel it, and letting others want to possess it.

It’s not hard to find.  It is right here in the Bible.  It is a living Word, an invitation to be in a relationship with Jesus who provides us with more than we could possibly want.  Revel in those blessings, my friends.  Let others see your joy, for God’s joy is in you, and in you it is complete.  Amen.