The Healing of the Ten Lepers

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.  They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master!  Have pity on us!"  And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests."  As they were going they were cleansed.  And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.  He was a Samaritan.  Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"  Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." Luke 17: 11 – 19

Today’s Gospel is the familiar story of the healing of the ten lepers.  Even though ten were healed only one returned to thank Jesus for healing him.  This leaves Jesus wondering where the other nine were.  God has been alive and present in all of our lives.  Always ready to heal and make whole our God often wonders where we have gone. We forget to see God’s action in our lives.  Often we are not willing to allow God to heal what needs to be healed in us.  We are afraid to surrender to God what needs to be healed.  God is always present to us and is willing to perform both the small and extraordinary miracles we need to experience.  May we always be open to allowing God to heal those places that we are most unwilling to share with Him.