Your Faith has Saved You

We’ve all witnessed this scene: little children who haven’t seen their grandparents for a while excitedly run and jump in their arms. This joyful encounter is born of their previous experiences of love, care, goodness. The Samaritan leper in today’s Gospel exemplifies the same kind of exuberant response to Jesus.

I wonder why the foreigner returned and the others did not. All were suffering from a disease that bound them as outcasts. When they were healed, the nine returned to their former life – religious as well as ethnic. The foreigner only had Jesus. He chooses to respond and come face to face with the One who has healed him. And perhaps he has found his true home. What depth of faith leads us to run to Jesus with joyful expectation of being embraced, healed and loved? How do we discover who Jesus is?