Homily for the 28th
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
(Lk 17: 11-19)
Fr. Joseph Dinh, O.P.
THE REAL FAITH
Dear Sisters and
Brothers,
After healing a
disease, Jesus usually said this sentence to those who were healed: “Your faith has made you well”. Jesus
wanted to emphasize that faith is the main cause of healing. Therefore, faith
is an important factor that penetrates our life and becomes a main reason for
our religious behavior. However, the Gospel story today telling us of ten
lepers who were cured of leprosy, reminds us that their behavior lacked
something even more important than their obedience; they lacked gratitude. The
real faith should consist of both praise and thankfulness.
1. The ten leper’s actions
First let us talk
about the ten leper’s actions.
At the beginning,
they wanted to meet Jesus. Surely they knew Jesus’ name and His power over
diseases, so they hoped that Jesus could make them clean. However, having contracted
leprosy, the lepers were not allowed to get close to Jesus. They have to stand
at a distance from Jesus. In the Jewish society of that time, every leper had
to keep themselves always from others, carrying a bell in order to warn others of
their contagious disease. Consequently not being able to approach Jesus, they
stood afar and raised their voices. All of them asked Jesus for mercy, for
compassion and for a cure. Why did they beg
Jesus’ mercy? The answer is simple: they were lepers and nobody could cure them
except Jesus. They were denied the right to live like other human beings. They
wanted Jesus to understand their suffering, sympathize with their loneliness
and forgive their sins.
Following Jesus’ instruction,
the ten lepers went to present themselves to the priests. As a result, all of
them were cleaned. In fact, this was an action which was opposite to the law current
at that time. By law the leper was to go to a priest after having completely being
cured. In this case, although the ten lepers were not yet cured they still follow
Jesus’ instructions and presented themselves before the priests, because of
their faith in Jesus and it had cured them.
2. The Samaritan’s behavior
Let us continue with
the Samaritan and his behavior.
Together with others
lepers, the leper from Samaria went to the priests, and on the way he was
cleaned. Were the ten lepers cleaned? Of course all of them were made clean. Did
they recognize that they were healed? Surely they knew. Despite being told to
go to priests, just like the other nine people, the Samaritan returned to
Jesus. Falling on his face at Jesus’ feet, the Samaritan expressed gratitude
and praised Jesus. Seeing him, Jesus asked: “Where are the other nine?” Asking the question, Jesus appeared to be
surprised at their ingratitude. Being too much meticulous in keeping the law,
sometimes makes people forget to give thanks to their benefactors.
According to Luke’s
Gospel, we know that Jesus did not blame the other nine, because He knew that
they were very happy to show themselves to the priests and they were going to become
normal persons again. Jesus praised the Samaritan not because he was a gentile,
but because he was the only one who returned to show his grateful to the Lord. Faith
leads us to God and His many blessings, but faith also teaches us to be
grateful of the Lord.
Dear sisters and
Brothers,
When we are in
trouble, we usually pray and ask God for help. This is right. But afterwards,
what is our behavior? Of course we think of God and want to give thanks to God.
Remember that faith is not an exchange between the one who asks and the one who
gives. It is not real faith if we only give thanks God when we receive God’s
grace. Every day, how much grace we receive from God! Let us imagine those who
were under the collapsed Twin World Trade Towers in New York on September 11,
2001. What did they need most at that moment? Of course they needed a little
air, water and space… to survive, although in daily life they, most probably,
did not care about these things.
May we recognize the
Lord’s grace in our lives with greatest gratitude and love Him with all our
hearts. Amen.
Fr. Joseph Dinh, O.P.
