OUR GOD THE ONLY IS VERY GOOD

OUR GOD THE ONLY IS VERY GOOD

Lk 17,11-19 He sent his son to rescue us.
1. Luke shows Jesus in his goal of going to Jerusalem, in order to perform the crowning of his mission: to die and to rise again for us sinners. Following his way, he goes through Samaria, a region of a people that does not get along with the Jews, nor these with the Samaritans, who are a mixture of Jew and pagans. Even the Samaritans are upset with Jesus' presence there, because He is just passing through to Jerusalem. They live the scorn of the Jews, who are the owners of salvation. While they are more open to the saving action of God, but without abandoning, in turn, the reciprocal contempt. Jesus perceived this and expressed it in the parable of the "Samaritan."
2. Ten lepers came to meet Jesus and stopped in the distance, shouting. The number 10 gives the idea of ​​universality. It is possible here to think of all humanity that must meet Jesus, the only Way, Truth and Life, and be freed from its ills. These lepers, who first of all reveal, in the misery, unity and solidarity of one another and interest in the same salvation, being they Samaritans and Jews, stopped at a distance because this is the rule because of their illness, in order to not contaminate anyone. They should shout to those who come near, saying what they have (leprosy), so that no one approaches them. They are isolated, placed completely on the margins of society, no longer participating in anything, not even in the life of faith, are excluded from the fellowship of the people because of the disease and, as such, because they are lepers, according to the mentality of they have grave sins.
3. "Jesus, teacher, have mercy on us"! Here is the cry of a humanity in need of physical and spiritual liberation, without direction, without horizon and without future; a humanity marked by terrible leprosy, as exploitation of one another, enslavement of the like, a desire to manipulate the masses, personal satisfaction to the detriment of the dignity of the other, absurd consumerism, permissiveness, robberies, injustice, hedonism, among many other imbalances. Jesus is aware of all this, the sea of ​​lamas where this humanity is, the prisons and leprosis incurable by the simple force of man. That is why it comes to history, lets oneself be involved with the sinner, allows oneself to be touched, blends without fear of contamination, allows the other to come to His encounter. Then, respecting the divine institution, he sends them to the priests, because they are responsible to reintegrate them into society after realizing that they are healed (cf. Lev 14: 2-7). The Church is an instrument of salvation. She was created to be the presence of the Kingdom of God in the midst of this world. You can not have the Head, Christ, without His Church, His Mystical Body. We can not be one without being of the other.
4. The healing takes place "while walking". Two important things here: first, they were obedient, for they went in the direction indicated by Jesus; second, walked confidently. It should be pointed out that our liberation takes place as we walk towards Jesus, with Jesus and in obedience to His Word. Unfortunately, not everyone, after being freed, stays with Him. Only one of them came back glorifying God with a loud voice. Only the Samaritan returned and gave glory to God, the only one who recognized the presence of salvation in Jesus Christ and Jesus Himself as the one for whom God is saving mankind. Now, once delivered from his misery and having recognized Jesus Christ as Savior, the Samaritan will certainly introduce himself to the priests and proclaim to them the Good News, the authentic sign of the liberation offered by God. Possibly, he did it denouncing the prejudices, exclusions and many evils provoked by the false religiosity. An important detail here is the fact that he was a Samaritan and not a Jew to recognize the true Messiah; only he can reach the fullness of the path of faith.