In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Glory forever. Today's Gospel reading from Luke
tells us about a group of ten lepers. They met
Jesus as he entered a certain village, and they
called out to him from a distance, since as lepers
they could not come close. They could not enter
the town, and so they met him where they could.
As they came close to him, they spoke. They said,
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. They called
out to him. They had this disease, this skin
disease, and they didn't know what else to do
or where else to go. with this flash of wisdom,
they came to the Lord. For they had heard of
what had happened, how others had been healed,
how there was hope for them, that perhaps they
too could get past this disease, this physical
manifestation of sin, this thing that kept them
away from Jewish society and isolated from fellowship
with people. So these ten, they came to the Lord
Jesus and they said the words, Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. He had healed others, perhaps
he would heal them. And Jesus heard their plea
and he had mercy on them. And he said to them,
go show yourselves to the priests. For though
he had already determined to heal all of them,
they needed to be declared clean by the priests
so that they could reenter into Jewish society.
And they did as he said, and all ten were healed.
And yet only one of those ten returned to give
thanks to Christ, to the Lord. And he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus said, were not ten cleansed, but where
are the nine? Were there not any found who returned
to give glory to God except this foreigner? And
he said to him, arise, go your way, your faith
has made you well. All ten received physical
healing, but the nine missed out on a much greater
healing. greater blessing that of being thankful
their heart didn't have the blessing of joy that
comes when we thank god saint theophon has said
for what is prayer prayer is the raising of the
mind and the heart to god for praise and thanksgiving
and beseeching him for the good things necessary
for soul and body so that true prayer will contain
more than just a request it will have thanksgiving
for what god has given us and for what he will
give us when we truly trust in the lord and just
like the one leper we need to come to jesus for
healing and then with a heart of thanksgiving
Walk away. Walk into life with that heart full
of love for others because we have loved the
Lord and thanked him. What about us? What about
our lives? We know what our Lord and God and
Savior Jesus Christ has done for us. He has healed
us from spiritual leprosy. He has given us forgiveness
of sins. He has provided a way of salvation for
us so that when we, like the ten lepers, cry
out to him, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,
we are asking him to heal us of this spiritual
leprosy and to forgive our sins and to restore
us to a right relationship with God. St. Gregory
the Theologian says of Christ Jesus our Lord,
the worse that we might receive the better. He
became poor that by his poverty we might become
rich. He accepted the form of a servant that
we might win back our freedom. He came down that
we might be lifted up. He was tempted that through
him we might conquer. He was dishonored that
we might be glorified. He died that he might
save us. He ascended that he might draw us who
were thrown down through the fall of sin to himself.
The Lord has had mercy on us. And now we have
that choice. Will we be like the one? Or will
we be like the nine? The one was thankful and
filled with gratitude and thus experienced the
joy of that thankful heart. A bad place to be
is with an ungrateful heart, for the fruits of
ingratitude are a complaining spirit, depression,
anger, possibly envy, and all these vices. But
if we find ourselves with an ungrateful heart,
do not give up hope. because God can turn it
around for us. All we need to do to help make
these vices into virtues is to turn to God and
say, Thank you, Lord, fill in the blank. Thank
you, the Lord, for whatever you can thank him
for. And keep thinking of things that you are
thankful for. And keep thanking the Lord, and
that ungrateful heart will change. Why will it
change? Because we will have taken our eyes off
of ourselves and we will have placed our eyes
upon God. And when our eyes are upon the Lord,
how could we not be thankful? How could we not
realize what he's done for us? Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. Thank you, Lord, for making
a way for our salvation. O Lord, continue to
sanctify us and prepare us for the kingdom of
heaven. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to heaven.