Faith and Gratitude

32nd Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (14 November 2018)

Titus 3:1-7. Psalm 23. Luke 17:11-19.

“Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

The story of Jesus healing ten leprosy patients occurs only in Luke's gospel. Just only one of the cured persons comes back to Jesus “praising God in a loud voice” and in deep gratitude falls at the feet of Jesus. A beautiful lesson in gratefulness for us.

And the one who returns to thank God and Jesus is a foreigner, a Samaritan, and not a Jew. Jesus, looking around at the Jews in his company, expresses surprise that ten were made clean but only one came back to give thanks and he was a despised foreigner. “This man was a Samaritan.” The words are loaded with meaning. For it is presumed that the rest were Jews. In the first place, Jews and Samaritans could not stand each other and the Jews tended to look down on the Samaritans as ungodly and unclean. But, in the misfortune of their leprosy, these Jews and Samaritans, rejected by both their own peoples, found common support in each other’s company. But, now that they are cured, only one of them comes to say thanks and he is still – in the eyes of the Jews – an outcast. As leprosy patient he is an outcast, as cured also being a Samaritan he is still an outcast. But he finds the right attitude, he returns and thanks Jesus. Here is another good Samaritan for us to imitate.

Only hour by hour gratitude is strong enough to overcome all temptations to resentment. Without this right attitude we may find ourselves in a spot of bother always.

To the man who returned Jesus says, “Stand up and go your way; your faith has made you whole again.” That “stand up” or “rise up,” which Jesus often uses with those he heals, has echoes of resurrection and entry into new life, a life of wholeness brought about by the man’s trust in Jesus and his acknowledgment of the source of his healing.

In the Gospels, Jesus seems to praise faith more than love. Now, what is faith? Of the many descriptions about faith, I like the following. Faith is simply to trust the real, and to trust that God is found within it—even before we change it. It is an initial openness that says "yes" to God and His designs. It is a surrender, more than self-reliance.

Faith is trusting in God's guidance and mercy and not in your own perfect understanding. You're always "falling into the hands of the living God," as Hebrews (10:31) says, letting God's knowing suffice and His arms save. Let faith and gratitude accompany our life journey, as we proclaim, "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want" (Psalm 23:1).