Where are the Other Nine?

10-12-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh lorchir, VC

The most meaningful form of gratitude we can offer for the many blessings we have received from God is a willful and generous surrendering of self in alignment with God’s will. When we receive a gift from anyone, especially if such a gift is life changing, the natural response is usually to express how grateful we are and how much we value that gift by communicating our thankfulness. This is what we see with Naaman the Syrian (Aramean) general who despite being a foreigner sought and found the prophet Elisha and after an initial hesitation did what the prophet asked him to do and plunged himself into the Jordan seven times to receive a miraculous healing from leprosy. He promptly returned and offered the prophet many gifts as an expression of his profound gratitude but the prophet declined receiving them.

Finally, Naaman made a profoundly life transforming request to take loads of soil from Israel to Syria in order to establish the worship of the One True God in his homeland promising to “no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the Lord.” This act represented not only his conversion to monotheism but also an acknowledgement of the land of Israel as the Holy Land. Naaman was a type of a Christian, for every Christian goes into the Jordan of the baptismal font in order to emerge cleansed from the contagion of sin. Like Naaman, a[ er baptism, we can plunge ourselves into the Jordan of the sacrament of reconciliation in order to be cleansed from the leprosy of personal sin so we can be restored to righteousness.

We encounter ten lepers like Naaman in the Gospel passage who, cut off from society and from public worship of God could no longer bear the social and spiritual consequences of their condition, broke the rules that kept them away from others, humbled themselves and pleaded for help from Jesus who was passing their way. Unlike some of the miracles performed by Christ, the healing of the lepers did not happen instantly. Jesus guided them through a process that required them to go show themselves to the priests, the custodians of cultic worship in order for the manifestation of the healing they had already received to be made visible. It was in the process of obeying this directive that they received their healing. As demonstrated at the sea of Galilee where Simon and his companions ended up with a huge catch a[ er obeying the directive of Christ to “cast your nets into the deep,” the miracle of the healing of the ten lepers strongly suggests that Jesus came to teach us to be obedient to God as an antidote to the tendency to disobey which we acquired through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. It is in obedience that we receive grace which enables us to joyfully enjoy our restored relationship with God. As Christians, we have received several commands to “go” by Jesus: “go and do the same” (LK 10: 37) is a command to be merciful to our neighbor like the good Samaritan was. “Go make disciples of all nations” (Ma‚ 28:19-20) is a post-resurrection mandate to proselytize Christ. And “go and sin no more” (Jn 8:11, Jn 5:14) is a command for a changed life, to stop a sinful lifestyle and commit to an inner conversion once we have received spiritual healing. We should ask ourselves if we are obedient to these mandates.

When they got well, only one of the lepers returned to express gratitude for blessings received by falling at Jesus’ feet to thank Him. This leper had no gold and so he offered himself as a token of gratitude. Those who did not return may have had excuses that may have looked reasonable to them like they do to us when we receive blessings from God without expressing gratitude for them. To the one who returned, he was declared saved by Christ to indicate that God bestows even greater blessings when we off er Him the gratitude of the surrendering of our being and life for mercies received.

May we be led by God’s Holy Spirit to live in obedience to the loving will of Christ and may our lives be offered a living sacrifice of gratitude to God for His love.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC