The miracle story shared in our Gospel reading today, the curing of the ten lepers, contains, in my mind, three points of interest (1) the story highlights the fact that the lepers sought a cure from Jesus, (2) the lepers were cured only when they heeded the directions that Jesus gave them, and (3) the appropriate response to the cure, namely gratitude, was only made by one man and he was a Samaritan. It is important that we understand this story in the context of Luke’s narrative.
This story only appears in Luke’s Gospel and is thematically linked with a parable that precedes it. The first parable waves aside gratitude where this present story inculcates it. Both, however, conclude with the necessity of faith.
A number of scholars consider this story of the ten lepers to be a mere parable, a Lucan construction based on a story in Mark’s Gospel (1:40-45) wherein Jesus cures a leper. As a parable does, this story ends with a statement rather than with the wonderment of the onlookers as a miracle story does. Luke, however, has already recorded the Marcan story (5:12-16) and is known not to repeat stories. It is possible that in the process of oral transmission, details of a parable passed over into a miracle story. This story, along with those in chapter eighteen (18:1-8 and 18:9-14) gives the dispositions for prayer: gratitude, perseverance, compunction, humility and contrition.
When you think of the three elements that I pointed out are in this story-parable, you can see that the intention was to help us understand the dispositions we must have as we enter into prayer. Jesus told the lepers to go to the temple and present themselves to the priests and only cured them on the way.
What is again interesting about this story is that only the Samaritan understood that he should be grateful for the gift given to him by Jesus. This again highlights the fact that Jesus was pointing out that the people who should have known that gratitude was an essential part of prayer, seemed to be oblivious to this fact or just didn’t care. The Samaritan, supposedly, didn’t know as much about the faith as the others but he did know to be grateful.
We who say that we follow the teachings of Jesus should know that we must be grateful for the many things that we have in life, even the opportunities that life presents to help us change. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that each day we express our gratitude to God for the life He is giving us, regardless of the challenges facing us. It seems that having a real sense of gratitude for the life we have brings about interior healing and peace. Let us say: O Lord, with awe I give thanks to You for Your loving kindness and for all the benefits You have poured so abundantly upon me!