And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Ever since the advent of antibiotics the dreaded disease of leprosy or Hansen’s disease is a rarity. However, in Biblical times, it was indeed dreaded and to be shunned. I remember vividly watching the epic movie, Ben Hur, and seeing Judah ben Hur venturing to the outskirts of Jerusalem in search of his beloved mother and sister who had contracted leprosy. They lived with other lepers in caves and were thrown food by those who dared to approach them. Such was the lot of Biblical lepers.
Sisters and brothers, the dreaded lepers in today’s scripture lessons stand as a metaphor for all those latter-day persons that are so often shunned by society and sadly even those who bear the name of Christian. Today, I’m particularly thinking of the poor, homeless, immigrants and the undocumented and members of the LGBTQ community and all those whom society looks upon so often as less than human or worthy of respect and human dignity.
This past week, our Holy Father, Pope Leo has issued his first major Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te, which translates the Lord’s own words, “I have loved you.” It powerfully speaks of the Lord’s preferential love for the poor and homeless, the marginalized and powerless, the excluded and shunned of society – in other words, our latter-day lepers.
Authentic Christians find in these ‘little ones’ the ongoing presence of the face of Christ calling each one of us out of our narcissism and self-absorption to acknowledge their dignity and worth.
As a pastor I always shared with parishioners and staff that the ultimate strength and vitality of any parish community is its ability to be present and serve the needs of its least powerful members, the poor, homeless, immigrant, the sick and the dying.
So often people are incessantly categorizing Christians as ‘right’ or ‘left,’ ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ ‘progressive’ or ‘traditional.’ Rather than wasting so much time in trying to label our brothers and sisters in the faith, I like to see myself as a ‘Matthew 25 Christian!’ As often as you did it to the least among us you have done it to me.
At the end of our earthly pilgrimage when we stand before the judgment seat of God, let us hopefully hear, rejoice and give thanks when we hear these blessed words echoing through the centuries:
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’