In the time of Jesus, four categories of persons were treated as dead: the poor, the leper, the blind, and the childless. The lepers could not approach the villages and places where other people lived. All diseases were considered punishments for sins, but leprosy was the symbol of sin itself. The healing of leprosy was a miracle comparable to the resurrection of a dead person. Only the Lord could cure it.
The ten lepers shouted from a distance: “Jesus, teacher, have mercy on us”. Jesus asked them to “Go and present yourselves to the priests”. They go, and along the way, they are cured. This healing of the lepers should be understood as a catechesis for the Christian community.
The number ten in the Bible has a symbolic value: it indicates totality. The lepers of the Gospel represent, therefore, the entire humanity. Luke wants to tell us that the whole of humankind needs the healing of Jesus. No one is pure; we all carry the signs of death that only the Word of Christ can cure.
Whoever considers oneself righteous condemns others as sinful. This is leprosy that disfigures the life of a Christian. In the Gospel today, leprosy had brought together Jews and Samaritans, who, while in good health, despise, hate, and fight each other. The awareness of common disgrace and suffering gathers them in friendship and solidarity.
When we consider ourselves perfect, we raise the barriers and fences around us to protect us from those we consider “lepers.” But if we realise our own infirmities, we will not feel superior, will not judge, will not distance ourselves but will be in solidarity in good and bad times with our brethren.
God will not be happy until the last human being is liberated from the “leprosy”, which puts them far away from the Lord and one another.
The lepers invoke Jesus from a distance. From a distance, would Jesus listen to their desperate cry? These are the doubts, the fears which harass not only the ten lepers but also the Christians of Luke’s community. We believe that Jesus is the Lord, and he could cure us of our sinfulness. But now that we are grave sinners and “far away” from him, would he still forgive and save us “from a distance?”
Luke’s answer to his community and us is simple: The Word of Jesus is the Word that heals every kind of “leprosy.” It is enough to trust in him, like that Samaritan leper to whom Jesus acknowledges: “Your faith has saved you.”
The ten lepers were cured along the way. A theological message is that the Christian life is compared to an “itinerary,” a long and tiresome journey. The healing of “leprosy” does not happen all at once. It comes progressively and requires a whole life. Jesus invites us to walk this way with patience, serenity, and optimism and be guided at every step by his word. Along the way, those who have faith will gradually see “his skin becoming as that of a child’s” as it happened to Naaman.
For your Reflection
As it happened with the Samaritan leper, the heretics, pagans, and sinners were the first to recognise Jesus as the mediator of God’s salvation.
Father Josekutty Mathew CMF
