Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

In this Sunday's readings we are presented with two stories of healing. In the first we hear of Naaman, the leader of the armies of Syria, who came to Israel seeking to be cured of leprosy. Following the instructions of the prophet Elisha he is cured and declares that the god of Israel is the one true God.

The psalm that follows rejoices in the power of the Lord to bring justice and salvation for the world. And in doing so it forms a bridge between the first reading and Luke's Gospel.

Luke tells us the story of Jesus healing not one, but ten lepers. The majority of whom are Jewish, as evidenced by Jesus sending them to the priests of the Temple. Once their healing is confirmed they will be restored to the fulness of life in the faith community. But one of them is not.

As this brief story unfolds the one Samaritan among the ten returns, praising God and giving thanks to Jesus for restoring him to health. As a Samaritan he is an outcast among the outcasts. Even the Jewish lepers would have looked down upon him. He is not one of the chosen people that the Jews understand themselves to be. Yet he is the one that returns, not to the authorities, but to God.

And this is reinforced by Jesus final words to the Samaritan 'Go, your faith has saved you.' Not his birth, or his ancestry, but his faith and his response of praise and thanksgiving for the God that has set him free.

As I listen to these passages I am reminded of two things.

Firstly, that no-one is shunned by God. And that I am called to the same radical inclusion of those that experience being other. To recognise who sits on the margins of our shared experience bring the centre to them.

And secondly, that along with reaching out to others, and trusting in God (the themes that have emerged over the past few weeks of readings), faith is also expressed in thanksgiving. Of returning to Jesus, giving praise to God, and being made whole, in communion with His Church.

study of Jesus healing the leper by Rembrandt

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