(Please read the scripture passage before reading the homily.)
The story of the ten lepers can give us a lesson on being grateful. It can go beyond that lesson.
Consider the ten lepers, nine from the chosen people, and one foreigner. All are wise enough to go the Lord to ask for a healing. All are obedient enough to go to the priests. Yet only one seemed to have correctly processed the import and the meaning of the healing. As often in Luke, the outcast, the foreigner, the one least expected is the one processes the encounter with Jesus and salvation properly.
“Whoa!” the tenth leper said, “I am healed! God has worked my healing!” Off he went, glorifying God in a loud voice and thanking Jesus. He recognized in Jesus God at work. Does this mean that the person was converted to the Jewish faith? Neither Jesus not Luke tells us that, but we are told that the person’s faith had saved him.
In one sense we are all lepers. Do we recognize God at work in our lives? God does forgive our sins and is constantly cleansing us of this leprosy. God uses other human beings, animals, the weather and many other elements in our lives to heal us. The leper came to understand this and saw God in the life and actions of Jesus. The story can challenge us to see God at work in the people and events of our lives. We need the insight of the outsider to learn to discern God’s presence even in strangers and foreigners.