Your Faith Has Saved You

In this gospel Jesus tells the one leper who returns to give him thanks for being healed that “your faith has saved you.” What amazing words to speak to a leper, one who is removed from family and community, one who is an outcast! For Jesus, there are no outcasts. Yet only one of the ten demonstrates that being saved is being healed, is returning to the Healer, is glorifying God, is falling at the feet of Jesus, is giving thanks. Only one shows us how faith saves. Faith is not static; it is dynamic, unfolding in various movements.
 
The grateful leper, through his actions, teaches us much. We learn that salvation is not freedom from disease, but a new relationship with Jesus. We learn how faith saves: by being in intimate relationship with Jesus, our Healer.
 
The leper was healed while “Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem.” This is what happens to us when by paschal mystery living we walk with Jesus to Jerusalem: on the way we are healed of our infirmities. Gratitude is an expression of paschal mystery living because by giving thanks we acknowledge our own indebtedness—we are poor and everything we are and are becoming is because God has raised us up. [Living Liturgy, 2013]
 
What are our diseases that make us cry out, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”? We may suffer the “diseases” of racism, indifference, arrogance, lust, self-centeredness, self-indulgence, self-righteousness. The dynamic that saves us is awareness that we are unhealthy, desire for healing, trust that God will heal us, gratitude for the grace God works in us, faith in the divine Healer. To what lengths will we go for this kind of healing?
 
By living Jesus’ dying and rising in our own simple everyday tasks, we render God the greatest thanks and worship because our lives become like that of the divine Son. Our thanks is manifestation of God’s salvation.

Adapted from Renew International Prayer Time Cycle C