image source 32nd Week Ordinary Time Year II Wednesday
Gospel of Luke 17:11-19 Reflection:
In the gospel today we have the familiar story of the ten lepers who are cured by God but only one of them came back to thank him.
Luke was writing this parable, as he wrote his gospel, for people who had been converted from being a gentile to the new Christian faith. In the story Luke emphasises that the one man who came back to thank Jesus was a Samaritan.
This was an important detail for two reasons. First, it showed that the message and healing of Jesus was for everyone. Second, the Jews hated Samaritans and yet Jesus, a Jew, was willing to love and befriend everyone, regardless of race and creed.
We are often a bit like the ten lepers; when we are in a wee bit of trouble we pray to God to get us out of it, promising all sorts of conversion and goodness from then on.
Then when the crisis passes we are quick to forget promises made. This is not new. Even at the time of the writing of the psalms the writer could say, ‘I will keep my vows to the Lord,’ implying that others, and probably himself, had not kept their vows in the past.
But every now and then we do go back and thank Jesus. We go to the chapel and kneel down and thank God for services rendered or we pause for a moment and reflect of how good God is to us.
These are valuable times, moments of humility and grace.
Perhaps we should nurture them and carry them out more often!
Gospel of Luke 17:11-19 Reflection:
In the gospel today we have the familiar story of the ten lepers who are cured by God but only one of them came back to thank him.
Luke was writing this parable, as he wrote his gospel, for people who had been converted from being a gentile to the new Christian faith. In the story Luke emphasises that the one man who came back to thank Jesus was a Samaritan.
This was an important detail for two reasons. First, it showed that the message and healing of Jesus was for everyone. Second, the Jews hated Samaritans and yet Jesus, a Jew, was willing to love and befriend everyone, regardless of race and creed.
We are often a bit like the ten lepers; when we are in a wee bit of trouble we pray to God to get us out of it, promising all sorts of conversion and goodness from then on.
Then when the crisis passes we are quick to forget promises made. This is not new. Even at the time of the writing of the psalms the writer could say, ‘I will keep my vows to the Lord,’ implying that others, and probably himself, had not kept their vows in the past.
But every now and then we do go back and thank Jesus. We go to the chapel and kneel down and thank God for services rendered or we pause for a moment and reflect of how good God is to us.
These are valuable times, moments of humility and grace.
Perhaps we should nurture them and carry them out more often!
