The importance of gratitude. 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Both the first reading and the Gospel of today's Mass present us with the healing of a leper. Leprosy was the most feared disease in ancient Israel, leading to the exclusion of its victims from society and requiring a strictly prescribed ritual for the reintegration of the cured person.

The fact that the leper had to appear before a priest both to verify the disease and its cure - in order to be able to return to normal society (cf. Lev 14) - helps us to consider it as a prefiguration of sin and its "cure" in the sacrament of Confession. Just as the priests of the Old Testament judged sickness and announced its healing, the priests of the New Covenant-with the power to bind and loose given to them by Christ (cf. Jn 20:21-23 and Mt 18:18)-also judge sin with a view to forgiving it.

In the first reading, the healer is a prophet, Elisha, and the healing leads the healed man, the Syrian (and therefore pagan) Naaman, to recognize the one true God. Linked to the healing (though not mentioned in today's brief text) is Naaman's humility in listening to his servants and obeying Elisha, who asked him to perform the relatively simple task of washing seven times in the Jordan. In other words, there is no elaborate ritual, let alone magic, and Naaman, a great general, has to perform a very basic action that he could perfectly well have done in the rivers of his own city, Damascus. Naaman, with a very territorial notion of deity and a god's ability to act, takes with him some local land to continue worshipping the God of Israel.

Jesus, a greater prophet than Elisha, heals the ten lepers who come to him begging for mercy. Although, according to Jewish custom, He tells them to come before the priests, the fact that they are cured along the way makes it clear that He Himself is the true High Priest, the true representative between God and man. In both senses, as priest and prophet, He reveals Himself as the true mediator between mankind and God, being Himself both human and divine.

Once again, a foreigner (if not pagan) is the hero of the action, for it is a Samaritan who returns to give thanks, while the nine Israelites do not. And again, a foreigner discovers the true God, Jesus, through this physical healing. In this episode, a key lesson is the importance of gratitude. Today's readings invite us to do with gratitude the little things God asks of us, knowing that, with faith in him, these will lead to a deeper spiritual healing of our soul.