By Colleen O’Sullivan
But
when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of
any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through
the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out
on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his
grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
(Titus 3:4-7)
The Lord is
my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1b)
(The
lepers) stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, 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. (Luke 17:12b-16)
Piety
Lord, may I ever be thankful for your healing grace and mercy.
Study
As I was reflecting on today’s Gospel, I thought of
all the recent news stories about the Ebola virus. Anyone infected with the disease, their
family members, their friends, and anyone who has come into even the remotest
contact with them all become instant lepers.
No one wants to come within a mile of them, so frightening is the
disease. What an isolating experience
for those affected. Even in this country,
with all our sophisticated medical expertise, if you’ve got the virus, you’ve
got to be wondering if you’re going to die.
Your caregivers, of necessity, come to help you wrapped in layers of
protective garb. No one can come visit
you. It has to be extremely lonely.
That loneliness and isolation are what the lepers
of Jesus’ day experienced, too. No one
wanted to be infected, so lepers were banned from towns and villages, from
contact with family or friends. They
literally lived on the margins of society.
So, how wonderful it must have been for the ten lepers who cried out to
Jesus for healing and had their plea answered.
No longer would they be shunned.
They could return to their homes, their occupations, their
families. They could live again.
So, why did only one of the ten, and a Samaritan at
that, turn back to thank Jesus? Probably
the other nine were like most of us. We
don’t generally walk around full of gratitude.
We all have much for which to be thankful. (Just ponder the words in the first Scripture
reading. Out of love and mercy, our God
has redeemed us and offers us the gift of eternal life.) But we don’t wake up in the morning full of
thanksgiving for another day, for the gift of life, for the blessing of
redemption. We take it for granted. Or we are disgruntled with God because not
every item on our prayer wish list has been granted.
Action
Spend some time today praying through Psalm
23. Think about how God has led you to
green pastures. What restful waters has
God used to refresh your soul? When has
God taken you by the hand and led you in the right direction? When have you walked through a dark valley
without giving in to fear or despair because you felt the presence of the
Lord? When you pray through the entire psalm
in this way, you should be able to gratefully echo the psalmist in saying, “The
Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
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