Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday’s gospel is full of little details that point to the mystery of reconciliation. Lepers are well known to have been cut off from society in the time of Jesus. Their frightening and highly contagious disease made them outcasts and condemned to live in isolation. On top of this, the allusion to Samaria and the Samaritan leper also speaks of separation. The Samaritans were Israelites that had been cut off from the Temple centuries before the time of Jesus. They were like the Jews’ unwanted “cousins” that were despised and kept at a distance.

And yet Jesus stops at their plea for mercy. I wonder… Was their plea for mercy a plea for being healed of their disease, a plea to be reintegrated into society, or a plea to be brought back to the Temple (place of God's presence)? I think Jesus hears this multi-layered cry for mercy and responds to it fully. “Go show yourself to the priest” He orders them. This is what the Law prescribed that a leper do if he found himself cured of the disease. It was a way that a leper was reintegrated into society and invited back to the Temple.

We see that Jesus is always interested in our full and total healing and reconciliation. Not just in a single part, not just the physical, not just the social, not just the spiritual… but all of it. Have you experienced Jesus' full healing and reconciliation in your life? I invite you to beg him for his mercy, and I invite you to be full of gratitude for what He has already done in your life and in the life of those close to you.

Thibault, Drexel Campus minister