Biblical Comments on the Ten Lepers

In Luke 17, Jesus gives ten people with leprosy new lives by curing them of their illnesses.  He then tells them to show themselves to the Jewish priests, so that they can re-enter society.  On their way to the priests they realize they are healed.  How amazing it must have been to suddenly be able to feel with their hands again.

Nine of them continue on their way, and one of them "turned back, praising God with a loud void, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.  Now he was a Samaritan.  Then said Jesus, 'Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' And he said to him, 'Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well.'"

One can hardly blame these nine for not going back, since they were on their way to the priests who would allow them to re-enter Jewish society: their spiritual, social and ethnic homeland.  They were going to their old home without realizing that "something greater than the temple is here." (Mt 12:6)

These poor nine were spiritually blind.  But it's easy for us, who stand on the outside, to think that when you're healed, you should go to the person who healed you instead of the people who were ostracizing you.  But they were caught up in the moment.  "Finally," they must have thought, "They will accept me!"

According to Leviticus, lepers had to live alone outside "the camp," and when they walked around they would have to say "unclean, unclean." (Lev 13: 45-46)  It's not surprising that members of God's society were outcasts, since God himself became an outcast of our sake.  This is a deep mystery.

The lepers were doubtlessly given graces, though, to handle their unfortunate status; but one can only imagine the abuse they must have taken from "clean" people.  They must have had deep emotional wounds, and perhaps they went back to the Jews instead of to Jesus in order to heal these wounds.  The nine didn't realize that the one who healed their bodies could also heal their emotions and spirits.

When we are wounded emotionally, do we go to the person who wounded us, or do we go to Jesus?  When someone has hurt us, and we feel unaffirmed, we sometimes feel that if that person were just to accept me as I am, I could finally accept myself.  We tend to go back and go back to the person who is wounding us because we just want to prove that we're worth something.  We have to let go of this!  It is in Jesus' eyes that we are really worth something.  We are his brothers and sisters and children.  His little ones!

So how do we allow Jesus to heal us?  By speaking with Him.  We can whisper our deepest hurts to Him, and He will listen to them and begin His healing motions in our hearts.  We can also visit the sacraments, especially confession, which will give us the strength to finally let go of the lies that are like dams, clogging up the flow of grace in our lives.  We just need to bring Jesus into our lives, and not forget to thank Him when we're healed!

God's Glory in the Death of Lazarus

When Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ house after his death, Martha mentions that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus never would have died.  Then Mary mentions it.  Then the people at large mention it.  So it is mentioned three times.  

But Jesus did allow Lazarus to die.  Why?  Jesus says Himself, “This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.” (Jn 11:4)  Jesus allowed Lazarus to die so that he could raise Him from the dead and show the glory of God.

When we become ill, or lose someone close to us, or don’t get the job we wanted, we generally ask God “Why?”  We are like Martha and Mary and the people at large, who say, “If you had only been here…”  But Jesus allows these setbacks and sufferings so that his glory can be manifested.

And his glory is manifested when a person loses something very dear to him, like his wife or his health, yet continues to praise God.  God’s glory is manifest in people like Job, who lose it all, yet remain faithful to the Lord.  People like Job make the fundamental assertion that “God is good,” even when all evidence seems to be stacked against His goodness.

God loves faithfulness, and it is faithfulness that allows a person to remain with God through the difficulties.  Difficulties make our faithfulness strong, and the more faithful we become, the more like God we become, and the more His glory is made manifest in us.   

The Name on Jesus' Stone in Heaven

Emmanuel, "God with us."  Maybe Emmanuel is the name on Jesus' stone held by the Father in heaven (Rev 2:17).  Jesus means "God saves," and in heaven Jesus' salvific mission has ended, and he is simply with the saved, the angels, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

No one is supposed to know what is written on a person's stone.  But isn't it like the Son, in the fervor of his love, to reveal his most hidden self?  Emmanuel, "God with us."  The truth of this name has begun to unfold, and unfolds in each of our lives as the name "Jesus" is fulfilled.  At the end of time, when God is all in all, maybe the Son will be praised as Jesus and rejoiced with as Emmanuel.

Our Two Cents

The widow puts two cents into the temple treasury.  According to Jesus, this is "all the living that she had." (Lk 21:4)  It was two cents, not one cent.  It's easier to put in your whole living if you just have one cent.  But to have two cents, and to give both of them away to God, that is remarkable.

It would be easier to think "I have two cents, one for me and one for God."  But no, she gives God both of them.  You'd think that every preservation-instinct-alarm-bell would go off in her head, and would manifest themselves in a flurry of excuses like "It's so little money and the temple treasury is so rich!" or "I'm an old woman and I need to take care of myself," or "I'm a widow and don't have a husband to take care of me, I should save this money."

We all have two cents: a body and a soul.  Really, they are all that we have, all that we are.  We decide whether to give them to God, or whether to make excuses about why we need to hold onto this pleasure of the flesh, or that interest of the soul.  To give them away to God means to rely on Him, just as this widow did for her next meal.  God will provide us with all the joy and peace that we need, we just have to place our body and soul into the life of Christ, the Treasure of the Church.

Avoiding Catholic Hypocrisy

Jesus upbraided the crowd for not interpreting the present time as being the Messianic Age.  They didn’t realize that the Christ was among them, so Jesus says to them, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens.  And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.  You hypocrites!  You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

It may seem harsh at first that Jesus is calling the people hypocrites for not realizing that he is the Christ.  But we have to think of the tone that Jesus probably spoke these words in.  I doubt he had a harsh tone of voice.  His tone of voice probably had frustration in it, but also affection.  Harshness is born of fear, and Jesus wasn’t afraid of the people.  He loved them.

But why is a person hypocritical for not interpreting the present time?  To answer this, let’s turn to the present time.  We are currently in the Messianic Age, so Christ is approaching us directly at each moment, and forming His Church according to His will.  He is constantly forming the Church to address the needs and concerns of the contemporary age, because Christ reaches out to people where they are.  

When a person does not interpret the way Christ is reaching out to him and the rest of the world, but rather has his own plan for his salvation and apostolate, he quickly becomes hypocritical.  This is because he claims he is on the path to sanctity, and that he is leading others toward God, but really he is ostracizing himself from the Body of Christ by choosing his own plan over God’s plan.

The people whom Jesus addresses in the quoted Gospel passage were hypocrites in part because they could interpret physical signs but not spiritual signs, but also because they had their own plan for what the Messiah should look like, and Jesus was not falling into line with their ideals.  They claimed to be God’s people, yet they were denying God and his plan.  This is hypocrisy.

It’s up to us to do our best to keep up with the Church so that we don’t end up being hypocrites.  There are several ways to do this.  First, we need to listen to our Pope, the Vicar of Christ, who sets out a plan of action for the Church.  Our current Pope seems to emphasize the importance of joy, tenderness and mercy when relating to others.  According to Evangelii Gaudium all members of the Church are called to spread the faith with joy.  Not a bad plan.

Another way to remain in Christ is by listening to priests who, in their homilies and meditations, continually bring the Word of God to life in our contemporary circumstances.  The Word of God is living and effective, and priests interpret it for the present age.  We can also interpret Scripture ourselves, and do our best to apply it to our lives.

It’s the struggle of every person who calls himself Christian to let go of everything that goes against the will of God.  God wants us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, which means doing our best to live without hypocrisy, in the joy of Christ who is constantly coming out to us and inviting us into the feast.  All we have to do is say “yes.”

The Hidden Leaven

Jesus says of the kingdom of God, “It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

Just like the mustard seed that is hidden in the earth, the leaven is hidden in “three measures of meal.”  God’s kingdom is hidden, but becomes visible by its effects.  The dough rises, though we don’t see the leaven itself once it is hidden in the meal.  Our own experience of God is often that he is hidden, yet we can still see the effect he has on our lives, and feel the peace and joy of His presence.

When the leaven is heated up, it creates bubbles of carbon dioxide, which make the dough rise.  God does something similar in our own lives.  He expands our interiors and makes us free.  We catch glimpses of the vast horizons of the Spirit of God.  He opens us up by helping us to let go of attachments until we are empty inside, so that we can be filled by God’s love.

The meal can be considered the stuff that God works with.  He works with our souls and our bodies, with our habits and our passions.  He takes all of this, along with our flaws and even our sins, and leavens it, raising it up toward heaven.  

The mustard seed was sown in the garden by a man, and the leaven is hidden in the meal by a woman.  The woman hiding the leaven is just like Mary, who hid Jesus in her womb for nine months; and the man sowing the seed is just like Jesus, who, as the new Adam, tends the gardens of our souls.

The Mustard Seed

God says of His kingdom, “It is like a grain of a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”  

The aspect of this parable we always think of is that mustard seeds are tiny and become the largest of trees (shrubs), and in this way are like the kingdom of God.  That’s what Jesus himself says in Matthew.  But in Luke, quoted above, Jesus does not interpret the parable for us, which leaves us some space to interpret it ourselves, remembering that the most important interpretation is Christ’s.

Mustard trees can be as wide as they are tall.  They are like semi-circles, and they can be quite messy, which makes them look like comfortable homes for birds.  They are quite full, too, so they are a good place for birds to get out of the sun.  The Christian tries to be like a comfortable home for the people who spend time with him.  It is good for his presence to be like a cool shade which provides his friends a nice rest from the outside world.

Mustard trees produce a purple fruit that is sweet and nutritious.  It is up to every Christian to bear fruit, and for their fruit to mix sweetness and substance.  Substance without sweetness is harsh and ultimately resented by the person who receives it.  Sweetness without substance is ephemeral and doesn’t really help.  The right balance hits home but in a gentle way.

When a seed is planted, it is hidden in the earth.  It goes through a period of dormancy, before it germinates and puts out shoots.  These shoots remain underground until they get large enough to break into the open air.  The kingdom of God is also hidden at first, and can come into a person’s life without his even being aware of it.  This time of dormancy and germination is the preparation for the epiphany a person has when he suddenly becomes aware of the kingdom of God: When he suddenly sprouts into the light.

The fruits (and seeds) of a mustard tree aren’t used to make mustard, nor are they popularly consumed like apples.  But the mustard tree has borne a fruit more wonderful than any other tree: It has been used by Jesus to reveal the mystery of the kingdom of God.