BEING DISCIPLES MEANS HEALING AND BEING HEALED

“Ten lepers stood at a distance from Jesus and raised their voices, saying,  ‘Jesus, Master!  Have pity on us!’  He said to them,  ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’  As they were going they were cleansed.  And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. . .  Jesus said in reply,  ‘Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine? . . .’ Then he said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.'”  Luke 17:11-19

The one leper returned because, as Jesus explains, he had an inner faith, not only in God but also in his own worthiness to be in the presence of his Healer. The others (almost all of those healed!), had deeper maladies that prevented their return. And wouldn’t we expect this to be the case since they were shunned, rejected and forced to live on the edges of society?

HEALING EACH OTHER

How do we heal the interior damage caused by “man’s inhumanity to man”?  How do we heal those whose ability to connect with others has been wounded by real or perceived past or present rejections? How do we stop ourselves from being inhuman toward others?

We humans tend to act inhumanely toward someone who says or does things that differ from what we want or expect. Only genuine encounters with the Father through Jesus and the Spirit can change this in us. Do we take the time and make the effort to let God’s graces flow into us and out of us to those who, on the surface, seem to be “unacceptable” to us or to those with whom we associate?

“Throughout the Gospel, Luke calls upon the Christian disciple to identify with the master Jesus, who is caring and tender toward the poor and lowly, the outcast, the sinner, and the afflicted.”¹ In this Lukan story Jesus quickly heals the lepers, enabling them to return to life with their families and friends, walk freely among the people in the city and engage in normal everyday life. For us, disciples, the healing may take longer and be more like the two-person healing of Beast and Belle in the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, play and movie.

As we go forth from Mass this weekend and back into our everyday lives, let us ask for the grace to be more understanding and forgiving of others, especially when their words or actions may arise from inhumane treatment and woundedness. Let us allow God to heal us and work through us to help others heal and restore their faith in God and in their own worthiness. After all, God, the most understanding and forgiving of all fathers, wants each of us to keep returning to Him. We gather at Mass because we, individuallly and collectively, have a need to be in the presence of God.

May we cooperate with God’s desire and accept God’s grace to treasure the reality of each of us being equally precious to God who desires that we be equally precious to each other.

Sister Loretta Fernandez RSM

1 Introduction, The Gospel According to Luke, New American Bible Revised Edition, USCCB.