Dear Parishioners,

The miracles of God or the God of miracles?

Last Sunday Jesus spoke to us about the strength of our faith, and that if it is like a mustard seed, we can do marvellous things. In today’s Gospel we can see faith revealed in the encounter between Jesus and a leper man who was a Samaritan. Ten lepers came to meet Jesus, who is going to Jerusalem. Jesus was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilea and he decided to enter the village of those ten lepers. Jesus wanted to meet those ten lepers.

1. First light, Faith creates connections between God and me, people and me, creation and me. Faith is about listening, sharing. Faith is our fundamental relationship and touches all our other relationships, with people, creation, our responsibilities…  The ten Lepers went to Jesus and asked to be healed; “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”. The Lepers recognize  their illness, their necessity before Jesus and also, they obey Jesus’ command, when he says: “Go and show yourselves to the priests”. And it happened that on the way they realised that they were cured. So these simple things were the path to their healing, expressing their need of Jesus and also listening and obeying him. “As they went their way, they found they were cured”.

2. Second light, when we go beyond ourselves it opens up in front of us a wonderful path of growth as a God’s children, with healthy hearts, minds, and wills, and we become an expression to others of God’s love and his Kingdom. Sometimes all we expect from faith is to receive some kind of healing and gift from God, but God is inviting us to something more, to go beyond this. Only one of the ten lepers reaches this level, a Samaritan, who “as soon as he saw he was cleansed, turned back praising God in a loud voice, and throwing himself on his face before Jesus, he gave him thanks. He shows that he has gone beyond simply receiving the gift to recognising the one who has given the gift.

3. Third light, our faith is SOMEONE, Jesus, THE ONE SENT BY THE FATHER, who is above all commandments, rituals, benefits, themes, etc. Our faith is Someone. If each day we turn back to him in the midst of our busy days, he lifts us up and sends us on our paths, to our families, jobs, schools, to be witnesses living his Gospel.

We can keep this question over week, What is the centre of my faith, the miracles of God or The God of miracles? Do you seek God’s gifts or do you seek God?

Lord as this healed leper I want praise you and give you thanks for all your benefits. But specially I want you to be the centre of my life.

Have a good week, Angelica Ramiro, FMVD