28th Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
October 9, 2022
Luke 17:11-19

Who is this one leper that returned to Jesus to give thanks after he knew that he was healed? We never know the answer because like many other characters in the Bible, this person is nameless. The only information we had is that he was a Samaritan leper. What does it mean to be a Samaritan as well as a leper in time of Jesus? And why did he went back to Jews, while the other nine did not?

We have to remember that Jesus instructed to the lepers to go the Jewish priests. Why to a priest? According to the Law of Moses, the priest has the authority to declare someone clean from leper and allow them to return to the community [See Lev 13]. As the lepers went to see a priest, they were miraculously healed. One of them, a Samaritan, immediately returned to Jesus and as he put his face to the ground, he thanked Jesus. Why only one Samaritan? Precisely because he is a Samaritan. As a Samaritan, he has no obligation to see a Jewish priest, while the other nine, eager to be reintegrated into their families and community, sought the priest first. Yet, there is one deeper truth that we must not miss: this Samaritan bended his knees before Jesus, a Jewish man.

Simply put, Samaritans and Jews were bitter enemies. Though Samaritans and the Jews worshiped the same God of Israel, yet they truly hated each other. Each claimed to be the true Israel, while denounced the other as heretics. Despite having one God, they refused to share the common place of worship, let alone the common place to stay. Since the kingdom of David was torn into two, the Jewish and Samaritan have shared the bloody histories of enmity and violence. The Samaritan dan the Jewish have become the reflections of humanity’s dark side: how people can hate each other and do harm to others because of racial, economic, religious and ideological differences.

By healing both the Jews and the Samaritan, Jesus shows Himself not only as the Saviour of the Jews, but to those who seek Him and have faith in Him. Surely, the nine lepers have faith in Jesus. Yet, greater faith is needed for the Samaritan leper to kneel and admit that his Saviour is a Jewish man. With profound humility comes the great faith. True humility enables him to seek God first, rather than his personal needs and biases, the Healer first, rather the healings. This humility empowers him to set aside all his hatred and prejudices, and bow before Jesus, a Jewish man. While faith may have cured physical disease, humility heals the spiritual leprosy.

The Samaritan leper becomes a point of reflection for all of us. Do we come to the Church because primarily we look for the healing or solutions to our problems, or we seek God? Do we worship Jesus because we feel good and happy about it, or because we do justice to God? What is lacking in us is often not faith, but humility. The humility to see that everything is from God, the humility to put God first before our needs, the humility to make things move according to His plan, not our designs.

Roma
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP