COMMENT ON THE LITURGY OF THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings
Gal 5:16-24; Lc 17:11-19
Comment
Jesus is on the borders of Israel, between Samaria and Judea, in a territory with a mixed population, partly of Jewish ethnicity, partly of foreign ethnic groups. The Samaritans, as well as coming from different nationalities, practiced a syncretic cult in a temple on Mount Gerizim; their religiosity held the Pantateuch in great consideration but combined the fear for the biblical God with the cult of pagan idols. For these reasons they were greatly despised by the people of Israel.
The same fate of the disease had united the lepers who were the protagonists of this Gospel episode - partly Jews and partly Samaritans - in a life outside of society. In fact, the lepers had to follow specific provisions of the Levitical law (Lv 13), live outside the cities and keep at a great distance from those they would meet, loudly announcing their own impurity.
At the sight of Jesus their cry of pain turns towards him, who is recognized not as a simple didàskalos, "teacher", but as a "master", epistàta (cf. Lk 5: 5), one who cares of his pupils; this title in the Gospel of Luke is normally attributed to him by the disciples.
Jesus performs the healing but asks the lepers to first go and show themselves to the priests. In fact, the law has not yet been abolished, the veil of the temple has not yet been torn by his death. The lepers heal along the way, but only one goes back to thank Jesus and, having prostate, recognizes his divinity.
Why did the other nine not return to glorify the one from whom they had begged for healing? Perhaps they considered it to be owing, they attributed the miracle performed by Jesus to their own merits. They show themselves as those who have escaped the danger but lack of gratitude.
We too risk being ready to turn to God with faith in difficulties, but we often forget to thank him when our prayers are answered. How much space is there in our prayer for supplication and how much for praise?
Jesus invites the Samaritan to stand up and proclaims his salvation by faith. Not only was he healed of an illness that kept him out of civil society, but he was spiritually enlightened by grace by recognizing Jesus as Lord.
Christ purifies us from those sins and from those wounds that keep us separate from fraternal communion, he does not look at our past history and makes no distinctions. On the other hand, as Paul notes in his letter to the Galatians: "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ" (Gal 3:16). In Christ we are saved, not by law, but by the promise made to Abraham, patriarch of inheritance as numerous as the sand of the sea.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
