(Audio recorded live, 12 October 2025)

Readings:

2 Kgs. 5:14-17; Ps. 98; 2 Tm. 2:8-13; Lk. 17:11-19

Has our faith saved us? The answer should be without question. Yes, our faith saves us, but do we fully appreciate what it means to be saved? In today’s gospel, Jesus is traveling between Galilee and Samaria and encounters ten lepers on the outskirts of town. Leprosy was a contagious skin condition, and those who had contracted it were forced to leave their homes, their families, their communities, and their congregations. Not only was the disease itself debilitating, so also was the loss of interaction with everyone else, except for other lepers. St. Luke tells us that ten lepers stood at a distance and cried out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” They no doubt had heard the stories of the great miracle worker moving through Galilee, and when they finally had the opportunity, they prayed to Jesus. A prayer is an earnest petition. How often do we pray in earnest? How often do we pray as if our life depends on it? Because it does.

Since the ten lepers were not allowed in town, they formed their own little community outside of town. St. Luke tells us one of them was a Gentile Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans had nothing in common, yet, this leprous Samaritan somehow found a home among his Jewish leper brethren. This phenomenon is still observed even today, for example, when cancer survivors sympathize with one another, or those who have had similar surgeries share their journeys to recovery. Not everyone has had their appendix removed, but those who have share a common experience. So often, it is through our shared struggles that we find common ground and can say we aren’t so different after all. Imagine if all the people of the world had a moment of true empathy for one another. It might just make those difficult days a little more bearable.

After the ten lepers cry out to Jesus, he simply responds, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” He doesn’t touch them. He doesn’t spit on the ground and make mud to smear over their bodies. He simply gives them a mission: “Go show yourselves to the priests.” This is reminiscent of when the prophet Elisha tells Naaman, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean” (2 Kgs. 5:10b). The prophet gives Naaman a mission. In other words, if we wish to be saved, we have to cooperate with the grace God gives. It’s the old story, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. It must choose to drink, just as we must choose to respond to God’s grace. If God is constantly inviting us to enter into the mystery of the Cross and we stand by idle, the saving grace of Jesus’ death and resurrection will not penetrate. Salvation is not some spectacle to watch like a movie, but an ongoing effort to plumb the length, and width, and depth of Almighty God.

Naaman was saved, not because the prophet made some spectacle, or waved his hands over him like some occultist, but rather, because he carried out the Lord’s command. It was the same for the ten lepers in today’s gospel. They were given a command and had to respond. And as they were going they were cleansed. That is to say, it was not until they were engaged in the mission that they were cleansed. Realizing this, the Samaritan returns to Jesus, glorifying God, and fell at the feet of Jesus thanking him. Jesus asks about the other nine, which implies that their absence was disappointing, but then to the Samaritan he says, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

We ought to distinguish between the cleansing that happened to all ten lepers, and the salvation that came to the one Samaritan who returned to give thanks. The Galilean lepers were cleansed, but never returned. They did not receive the fullness of what Jesus was offering. Jesus does not restore us to go back to old ways; Jesus restores us so that we are transformed for the work he is calling us to do today. Nothing worth doing comes easy.

So, what about us? How has our faith saved us? What challenges we have overcome because of our faith? What transformations have we undergone because of faith? What greater sense of belonging do we have because of our faith? A little faith goes a long way. All we have to do is ask Jesus for what we need and cooperate with his grace to carry out his commands. Most importantly, like the Samaritan in today’s gospel, we return to Jesus glorifying God and giving thanks. We do this every Sunday. So, may this Eucharist, the thanksgiving we share today, be a foretaste of the salvation in store for all who keep the faith and cooperate with God’s grace to carry out his holy and true command.