Homily 28th Sunday in Ordinary time Cycle C October 9, 2022
Our first reading and our Gospel deal with the healing of
lepers. In the time of the prophets and
the New Testament, leprosy was a deadly and dreaded disease. More on this later.
When our
Gospel opens, Jesus is in the border area between Galilee – which was Jewish
territory - and Samaria, which was the area of the Samaritans. The Samaritans were descendants of the
northern ten tribes of Israel that were deported by the Assyrians, and they
mixed a lot with pagans. The Jews viewed
the Samaritans as heretics, and the Samaritans viewed the Jews as enemies. So, Jesus is in this tense border area. We know about tense borders in our
state. That is the kind of place that
Jesus is at, on the border.
A group of
lepers stand at a distance, raise their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
We are
fortunate to live today when leprosy is not such a horrible disease as it once
was. We have effective medicines and
means to deal with this terrible disease. So while leprosy is tragic, it is no
longer hopeless.
Nonetheless I
believe that the example of the lepers can instruct us today. At the beginning of this Mass we stood and
sang, “Lord, have mercy on us.” Just like those lepers in the Gospel. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord
have mercy.” Not because we have
leprosy, but because we have sinned and need the Lord’s healing mercy.
Jesus
instructs the lepers to go show themselves to the priests. When we sin, we also can go to the priests
for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
One of the
lepers, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus to thank him. He recognizes that Jesus is indeed the true
priest, the real mediator between
God and humankind. And Jesus says something very interesting. Jesus asks: “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
In Greek, the
original language of this Gospel, the term “to give thanks” is “eucharistōn”.
Eucharistōn? Does that remind you of
anything? Hopefully it reminds you of
the word, Eucharist, which is what we are doing right now. We are giving thanks, recalling what Jesus
did for us on the night before He died for us.
This Gospel
story about the healing of the lepers is really about us, and our healing – not
from physical leprosy – but rather from sin.
While this Gospel is frequently used on Thanksgiving, it really is not
about gratitude, but about Jesus healing us from something even worse than
leprosy, and that is sin. And so this
Gospel11214 applies to us all, because, regrettably, we all sin.
We are gathered here to do eucharist, to give thanks to God for God’s saving action in Jesus Christ. What Jesus says to the healed leper in the Gospel He says to us today: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” And that is good news indeed!
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