by Fr. Gregory-David Jones, O.S.B.

     Jesus cures ten lepers from their diseases very easily, without laying hands on them or making a dramatic pronouncement.  All He does is simply tell them to show themselves to the priests of the Temple and sends them on their way.  The miracle does not happen immediately, but as they walk on their journey.  Because the visible symptom of the illness is lesions on the skin, their disappearance would be an obvious sign of freedom from the disease.  But for some reason, only one of the ten “realizes” that the miracle happened.  Why?  We don’t know.  There can be several theories, but one thing is certain: while there were ten lepers who received a cure for a disease, only one of them was healed, healed not only in the body, but healed in his soul!

     The disease of leprosy meant disenfranchisement from family, friends and society because of the fact that lepers were considered “unclean”.  On a deeper level, those suffering from the illness also believed that it was a sign of abandonment from God.  So, it is only proper that the greatest cause of joy for the one who returned to give thanks to God for the miracle was not the idea of being able to come back to society.  The greatest cause of joy was knowing that he was not abandoned by the Lord (especially a Samaritan who was considered a member of a people “forsaken” by God).  For the grateful leper, the freedom from a physical disease was secondary – his greatest joy expressed itself by his return to Jesus to give thanks.

     Sometimes in life, we can become so focused on cures that we forget about or ignore our need for the healing that goes beyond having an ailment taken away.  Cures only last a lifetime, true spiritual healing(s) can be the door to eternal happiness.  Let us rejoice today and every day in the knowledge and reality that our ultimate Healer has taken upon Himself the disease that would condemn us to an eternal death.  He took the sickness of sin, nailed it to the Cross and opened the gates to the Kingdom of eternal happiness where we will have an unbreakable union with our God; where disease and all that ails us now will not exist!

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