11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village; ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”
Grace to you from the Mystery in whom we live and breathe and have our being.
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back.
Journey to normalcy
Jesus was somewhere between Samaria and Galilee when he came to a village. Probably a village made up of people suffering with leprosy. Lepers were required to stay at least 50 yards from any other human being. Villagers see Jesus coming. They kept their distance and cried out, “master, have mercy on us!” Jesus simply responds with, “go show yourself to the priests.” To re-integrate into a community, a leper needed to receive confirmation by a priest through observation they’d truly been healed.
Scripture says it was on their journey back to normalcy their healing took place.
Luke tells us that one of the 10 did not head back. He was a Samaritan, a citizen of the Northern Kingdom. A person of different descent, different laws, different places of worship. The other nine could have been Jews from the Southern Kingdom, or Gentiles or Samaritans. Nevertheless, they had one thing in common. They all had leprosy, and no one belonged, except to each other.
They had a shared problem. They suffered from leprosy.
Shared experience
None of us can forget what it was like during Covid. It was a global event unique to our lifetime. A pandemic. A shared experience of quarantine.
Say what you want about social media and its negative impact, but where would we have been without the connection it provided? As troubling as it was, how much deeper could the trauma of isolation be?
We watched celebrities making videos encouraging others with no financial reward for them. Just a grateful viewer. They came on air in pajamas and without make-up. Unmasked, they showed their true selves. It was a shared experience where we said, “hey, they’re just like me!” So many of us shared the experience of fear and isolation with a fresh authenticity and humility…for a while. We responded with gratitude for each other and solidarity… for a while.
If we think back, this was a unique invitation to global unity.
Millions, for a short time in history, crossed generational, ethnic, and economic divisions to allow compassion to seep into a hard and cold pre-pandemic world.
We were like 10 lepers in a village. No one cared who was a Samaritan, Jew or Gentile behind our wounded skin.
In Italy, residents of Sienna and Naples sang songs from their apartment balconies and shouted to each other “Andra tutti bene”, everything will be alright.
Even a Broadway star in New York serenaded healthcare workers from his balcony on a nightly basis.
When life, as we knew it came to a halt, it left widespread trauma that understandably, would not want to be relived or remembered.
kindness that crossed barriers
But, I refuse to forget the shared experience and the kindness that crossed barriers. Memories that would soon be forgotten and the return of a world skeptical of each other and unable to trust. Bubbles filled with negativity and speculation hang in the air only to burst and douse any remaining embers of hope and solidarity.
The question is not what we go through, but how we respond after. When things returned to a shared space and ego-driven feuds, our battle lines were redrawn and old divisions reinforced?
Using the ratio we’ve been given by this story of Jesus healing the 10 with leprosy, only one out of 10 people will respond with gratitude and give themselves to being transformed, and well.
Multiply that many times over and we can understand the world we live in.
Gratitude is not a byproduct of joy. Joy is a byproduct of gratitude.
Jesus said, “we’re not 10 made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Then he said to the Samaritan, “get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Could it be that the other nine no longer suffered from leprosy, yet remained unwell?
Have we, like them, forgotten the ordeal that brought us together?
Solidarity
The movie The Breakfast Club has a message for us.
Five high school students assigned to Saturday detention. A basket case, an athlete, a princess, a rebel and a brain. They have nothing in common except the room they are locked in for 8 hours.
At the beginning of the day their disdain for each other presented with put-downs and sarcastic stereotypes.
But soon they would find solidarity over a mutual problem. A power-hungry stereotyping detention monitor. The teacher gave them an assignment to write an essay. They would need to answer the question, “who are you?
Throughout the day of detention, the students made derisive comments to each other but eventually they began to tell their stories to each other, dispelling the stereotypes. The emotional barriers began to drop with every piece of vulnerability shared.
At the end of the day, Here is how the collaborative essay was read. The background song lyrics ring out, “will you forget about me?”
“Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice the whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to. You see us in the simplest terms in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain… an athlete… and a basket case… a Princess… and a criminal. Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.”
Who are we? who am i?
We too must ask ourselves, “Who are we?” “Who am I?”
How we choose to respond is vital to a movement away from our colonies and into civility. But why is it so hard to remember what binds us?
Is it because only 1 out 9 of us are transformed and made well from our experiences?
We prefer the emotional pain relief medicine. Temporary relief from an eternal problem.
How we respond is everything. The nine go home and tell the priest so they can quickly return to their place in society.
The one who responded immediately with gratitude, is immersed in joy and is told his faith has made him well. He was not only healed physically he was made well in his willingness to show gratitude.
To be made well is to see others differently, to respond graciously, and to love mercifully.
I’m afraid that the numbers today may be the same as the leper colony. Perhaps only one out of 10 live a life of joy born from gratitude.
Maybe we can look to the teens of the Breakfast Club to receive one more piece of wisdom. Here is what we can tell the “Mr. Vernon” in our lives, the inner tyrant who’d like nothing more than to see us divided and unwell.
“We are all a little bizarre. Some are just better at hiding it, that’s all.”
Amen
Wednesday Respite is a 30-min contemplative service of scripture, prayer, music and a Spirited Touchpoint by Henry Rojas, spiritual director at Spirit in the Desert.
Touchpoint is a reflection on where God’s story touches our life story. It is a short homily based on a biblical story of people in the Old and New Testaments and their relationship with God. Our spiritual ancestors’ experience of God’s grace connects with our lives in the present and our relationship with the Divine. Previous Touchpoints are available as PDFs or on SoundCloud.
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