The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed.  And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.  He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"  Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

There is a vast difference between living our faith as an obligation or as a blessing. The ten lepers came to Jesus to be healed, hoping he'd cleanse them, but when he sends them to show themselves to the priest nine of them do so, but never return to give thanks. Only the Samaritan returns to give glory to God and thank Jesus. He doesn't actually go to the priest as Jesus told him to, but rather he realizes once he is healed that there is something greater than the priest and returns to Jesus. The other nine did what they were told, but we know nothing else about them. They followed the regulations for lepers and proved to the priest they were clean, but they didn't return to Jesus. They might have followed his commandment, but they didn't take their healing to heart and respond to it as true disciples. This is why it is so important for us to view our faith as a blessing and not an obligation. If our faith is an obligation, then we never truly enter into its depths. However, if it is a blessing, then we will give thanks to God for it and never take it for granted. And then, when we meet Jesus at the judgment, we shall also hear the words, "Your faith has saved you."

Do we see our faith as an obligation or a blessing? Do we glorify God in a loud voice and fall at his feet when he helps us? How can we remind ourselves that our faith is a gift that we should be thankful for and not see as a burden?

O Lord, thank you for the blessing of our faith.

Amen.