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Blessings and Miracles Abound
Today is a day of unexpected blessings and miracles, signs of how God is active and alive and present in our world and in our lives when we are open and receptive to the possibilities. We hear, read about, and experience healing. Fragile relationships are restored. Hope is experienced in profound ways. Naaman, a commander and mighty warrior, suffers from leprosy, and even though he first denies the cure, Naaman accepts the advice of his servant, and by God’s action his skin and its disease is washed clean. Also afflicted with leprosy, ten lepers implore God’s mercy and are made clean. But the outsider—the foreigner—is the only one who returns to give thanks. Today many of us encounter other hardships of all sorts, and our reading in 2 Timothy makes the stark point that we all suffer. But our God joins us in our sufferings and in our hardships, making us whole through our spiritual cleansing of baptism and filled with God’s Spirit.
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
Jesus’ mission includes making people clean again. Unexpectedly, a Samaritan healed of leprosy becomes a model for those who would praise and worship God and give thanks for God’s mercy.
11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”