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28th Sunday Ordinary Time

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Cycle C

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Q288: Is there any special meaning for including a hated Samaritan in the group of ten lepers who were healed in today's gospel reading (Lk 17:11-19)?

If you can think of something that is "doubly repulsive" to you -- perhaps the experience of a grotesquely overweight person who gets on your elevator, stands by you and then loudly and deliberately belches and passes gas with prolonged gusto -- then maybe you can get a sense of the instant disgust that the word "Samaritan" would bring to a Jewish person in Jesus' culture -- and not only a Samaritan, but a leper as well. Jesus will use this Samaritan to teach us a powerful lesson.

You will remember another Samaritan from a story in Luke 10, the so-called "Good Samaritan." He was the only passerby who stopped to help an injured traveler and provide compassionate care. Jesus taught on that occasion that this man, this Samaritan, was the only one who embodied the second law of love, to love your neighbor as yourself (e.g., see Lk 10:27). Jesus told the Scribe on that occasion that if he, too, acted towards others in that manner, then he, too, would live ("inherit eternal life").

In today's story another Samaritan embodies the first law of love, to love God with your whole being. After being physically healed, the Samaritan returned to Jesus, the source of healing, glorifying God with heartfelt gratitude and love. For this action, Jesus told him that he was more than healed; he was saved by his faith in action (Lk 17:19).

Jesus has indicated the parameters of divine love: there are no boundaries whatsoever! God loves everyone! Luke's gospel is a gospel of universal salvation, good news to all who believe. And that leads to an ethical demand for you and me -- to carry on his mission of universal love, expressed by our actions.

Know Your Catechism! The Word was made flesh so that all humankind would be saved through his love, including Samaritans and others forced into the fringes of society by their self-centered and self-righteous neighbors (CCC #456-7). Jesus teaches us that everything hangs on the two great love commandments (CCC #2055). How often do you show your proof of gratitude by visiting Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament (CCC #1418)?

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If We Have Died with Him, We Shall Also Live with Him.

In the spring of 1982, the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, carried a statement that must have startled most American readers. It said that John Paul II had approved the official opening of the cause of canonization of an American priest who had died as recently as 1957. His name was Fr. Solanus Casey, O.F.M. Cap.

"Who?" I asked myself. I had never heard of this Detroit Franciscan.

That appears to be the point. Fr. Casey was being considered for sainthood precisely because he was a man of outstanding simplicity and humility, who shunned the spotlights. Bernard Casey, born at Oak Park, Wisconsin, in 1870, was the sixth in line of the sixteen children of very ordinary Irish immigrant parents. "Barney" quit school at 14 in order to help support his family, now at one job, now another (including that of a streetcar motorman). Meanwhile, he felt that he was ultimately called to the priesthood. The Milwaukee archdiocesan seminary accepted him, but he could not master Latin and German, as the course required, so he was dropped from its rolls. This set him thinking that his call might be to a religious order. He turned to the Capuchin Franciscans. They welcomed Barney, and on December 23, 1896, he was formally received and given the religious name "Solanus". Once again, however, he had trouble with Latin vital for priestly studies. The superior did call him to priestly ordination in 1904, but because of his deficiencies in theological studies, he was permitted only to offer Mass and never to preach or hear confessions.

Solanus accepted their judgment with perfect good grace. Wherever he was assigned, whether in Milwaukee or in New York's Harlem, he held the humblest offices: doorkeeper, sacristan, trainer of altarboys, moderator of the young women's sodality. In addition to these tasks, however, he developed an effective special apostolate to the poor, the sick, the people with problems. As Pope John Paul II might put it, Solanus did "ordinary things in an extraordinary way."

If this "unknown" American friar is ever deemed worthy to be declared a saint, we can praise the Father in Christ's word, "What you have hidden from the learned and clever you have revealed to the merest children," (Matt. 11:15). In a country like ours where people are liable to give wealth, position and comfort the highest priority, Barney Casey will also remind us of St. Paul's more sober assurance to Timothy, "If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him." (Today's second reading.)

-Fr. Robert F. McNamara

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Q445: Nine of the ten lepers in the Gospel story (Luke 17:11-19) really did what Jesus told them to do. Why do they seem to be portrayed in an uncomplimentary way?

I hope you picked out the two “surprises” in the Gospel story. The first surprise is that only one of the ten “healed” lepers returned to thank Jesus for his gift. The second surprise (at least for Jesus’ audience) was to find out that the only grateful person was a hated Samaritan.

Now, I believe that there is a deeper lesson being taught here; that lesson is much more than a simple “reminder” to be grateful for blessings received. Look farther down the road, as the ten lepers headed towards Jerusalem to “show themselves to the priests.” Do you really think that a hated Samaritan would even be allowed into the Temple without opposition? When the ten men recognized their healing, only the Samaritan turned back to give thanks. Is it possible that the “nine” Jewish lepers thought they had “earned” the healing, by responding with faith to go to Jerusalem? We don’t know. But I think it very possible that the “deeper” meaning is this: only a Samaritan – like the one who had earlier in Luke’s gospel demonstrated that he truly was the only “good neighbor” to someone in need, the injured traveler – only a Samaritan knew where the REAL presence of God could be found. Not in the Temple, where the other nine went to give ritual thanksgiving in obedience to the “law.” Rather, he went to Jesus, the source of his salvation, to give heartfelt thanksgiving in obedience to the gratefulness in his “heart.”

The most important “memory” event of a Jewish person’s life was to recall that transforming day of “salvation” at the Sea of Reeds centuries earlier. This was celebrated by them in a ritual festival called Passover. But now, when the salvation of “wholeness” is once again demonstrated to ten lepers in a real experience of the same saving power of God, only the Samaritan remembers and returns to the source of healing, Jesus. Lesson: healing is not dependent on the size of your faith; it is only God’s Gift that causes transforming events.

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Have you ever considered that it is a duty and an expression of gratitude to visit the Blessed Sacrament, to thank Jesus for his gifts to you (CCC #1418)? Learn from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who confesses with gratitude that God has done great things for her (CCC #2097).

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Q601: There seem to be a lot of happy and grateful lepers in our readings today!

We all teach our children at the earliest age to express the gratitude that is built within them. “Say ‘thank you’, Johnny” is an encouraging word from a parent, to help little Johnny learn how to respond to the reception of a gift from a friend or relative.

Today we hear two scriptural stories about gratitude. Naaman the pagan (2 Kings 5:14-17) is so grateful for his healing from leprosy that he wants to take a couple of bags of Jewish dirt back home with him, so that he can spread his prayer blanket on it and praise the Lord Yahweh who healed him. In our Gospel story (Luke 17:11-19) there are ten lepers who I am sure were grateful for their healing. But only one came back to Jesus and expressed his gratitude in verbal form – and he was the hated Samaritan, an outcast on Jewish soil.

Our Sacrament of the Eucharist is the act of gratitude par excellence. It is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church – representing all of us – expresses our gratitude to God for that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification (CCC 1360). We need to remember that the Eucharist is all about gratitude; the very word Eucharist means thanksgiving.

Pope Benedict XVI said only a month ago: “During this event of the Eucharist, let’s let ourselves be touched above all by gratitude for the fact that God exists, that, despite our having nothing to give Him and being full of sins, He invites us to His table and wants to sit with us.” We have so very much to be grateful for; every hour of our waking day we should be expressing our gratitude is some heartfelt form.

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! One visible proof of our gratitude to Christ is to make a frequent visit to the Blessed Sacrament (CCC 1418).

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