In this Sunday reflection,
Friar Luciano Audisio
invites us to look at our lives in the light of the Gospel of the ten lepers. Jesus goes through our “inner Samarias” to heal us from within and teach us that true faith is not measured by what we ask for, but by our ability to return and give thanks.
Two scenes, one experience
Today’s liturgy presents us with two scenes united by the same experience: that of healing and gratitude.
healing and gratitude
.
In the first reading Naaman appears, a foreigner, a Syrian leper, who after immersing himself in the waters of the Jordan is cleansed and recognizes the God of Israel.
In the Gospel, ten lepers come to Jesus from afar, ask for compassion, are healed, and only one – also a stranger – returns to give thanks.
Both stories tell of a God who knows no
God who knows no borders and who offers his salvation to all, but who expects from us a response of faith and gratitude.
but who expects from us a response of faith and gratitude.
Jesus goes through our “inner Samarias”.
Luke tells us that Jesus “was on his way to Jerusalem”. This is not a simple geographical displacement. That road represents the whole of Jesus’ life… and ours as well.
In the tradition of Israel, Jerusalem was the destination of the great pilgrimages, the place where one went to meet God. But Jesus transforms this path: it is no longer man who goes up to God, but God who walks towards man.
God who walks towards man
.
What is most surprising is that, unlike the Jewish pilgrims, Jesus does not avoid Samaria,
Jesus does not avoid Samaria
that cursed and despised land. He passes through it. And in doing so, he reveals to us that the Lord is not afraid to pass through our own “inner Samarias,” those places in our souls where we feel impure, rejected or unworthy.
Jesus goes through our wounded areas to heal them from within.
The cry of the wounded
When he entered a village, ten lepers came out to meet him. The number ten, in the Hebrew tradition, was the minimum necessary to pray in community. Here it symbolizes the whole of humanity: all of us, wounded in some way, with areas of death that cry out for life.
These men stop at a distance, because the law forbade them to approach. But that distance becomes the
space of the encounter
.
The first step of faith is to recognize the distance that separates us from God, and from there to raise our voice.
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
It is a cry born of misery, but which becomes prayer. In faith, to ask for help is already to open oneself to salvation. To pronounce the name of Jesus, whose meaning is “God saves”, is to let the life of God begin to act in us.
The look that heals
Jesus looks at them. And in that gaze is already salvation.
He does not touch them, he does not pronounce a magic formula; he simply sees them.
His gaze is creative
He sees beyond the wound and contemplates life restored.
Then he said to them, “Go and stand before the priests”. According to Leviticus, those cured of leprosy were to offer a sacrifice in the temple.
But this time, the healing does not take place in the temple, but on the road.
road
.
As they go, they stay clean. The miracle happens
in the movement of obedience
in the act of trusting in the word of Jesus.
Faith does not consist in waiting for a miracle, but in setting out to trust in Him.
Gratitude that saves
One of them, on being cured, returns praising God. This return is not only a gesture of courtesy, but a true conversion.
conversion
.
The Gospel uses the verb that designates the “return” of the heart, the same verb that expresses the return to God. This man performs a
Eucharist
He prostrates himself before Jesus and gives him thanks.
At that moment, the old sacrifice is transformed. It is no longer necessary to offer a lamb in the temple, because the true Lamb will be Jesus himself, who will give himself out of love to purify every leprosy of the heart.
The Samaritan’s thanksgiving anticipates the Eucharist: the recognition that we have been healed.
Faith and gratitude: two sides of the same coin
The other nine were also healed, but they did not return. We have all received grace, but not all of us return.
We have all been touched by God’s mercy, but not all of us live from gratitude.
The one who returns represents the believer, the one who becomes aware of what God has done in his life.
Jesus does not heal only those who believe; his compassion reaches everyone. However, only the one who returns, the one who gives thanks, truly enters into communion with Him.
“Arise and go; your faith has saved you.”
Faith is not simply believing that God can do something, but recognizing that He has already done it.
has already done it
and responding with gratitude.
He who gives thanks, lives.
Whoever recognizes the grace received is saved.
Back to giving thanks
Today, as we celebrate the Eucharist, we too are that one leper who returns.
We approach Jesus to tell him:
“Thank you, Lord, because you have looked upon me, because you have healed me, because you have passed through my inner Samaria without fear.”
Every Eucharist is this return, this act of recognition.
The believer is, in the end, the one who lives in gratitude.
Let us ask the Lord to grant us a heart that knows how to return, a gaze capable of recognizing the signs of his love and a voice that never tires of repeating:
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
And when, like the Samaritan, we discover that we have been healed, let us also know how to prostrate ourselves and give thanks,
for in that humble gesture true salvation begins.