\nyour faith has saved you.\u201d
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/57fa6d50a9139photo-1461770354136-8f58567b617a-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
\nhe traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
\nAs he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.<\/p>\n
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
\n\u201cJesus, Master! Have pity on us!\u201d
\nAnd when he saw them, he said,
\n\u201cGo show yourselves to the priests.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they were going they were cleansed.<\/p>\n
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
\nreturned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
\nand he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.<\/p>\n
He was a Samaritan.
\nJesus said in reply,
\n\u201cTen were cleansed, were they not?
\nWhere are the other nine?
\nHas none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he said to him, \u201cStand up and go;
\nyour faith has saved you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all have experienced some form of healing. Physical healing is easiest to describe, First, the symptoms of illness disappear: temperature, pain, weakness withdraw, like an enemy retreating from the battle field. Then the spiritual darkness and helplessness go, depression is lifted. Finally the day comes when we can reenter the world of the living.
\nWhile the process of healing is roughly the same, reactions to regaining health after a dangerous illness differ.
\nOne of my old-time friends, who beat leukemia, likens his healing to being born again. At 67 he feels 10 years old \u2013 inside and out. He goes to gym three times a week, takes long walks, enjoys every passing second with zest of a schoolboy on vacation. Normally a quiet man, he is now very vocal and expansive.
\nA young student who survived a different form of cancer threw herself foreign travel and\u00a0 embraces of her extremely good looking husband whom she met while still in the hospital. A timid girl before her illness, she is now outgoing and you can meet her on at least five types of social media.
\nNeither of the two seems to credit God with their healing. Not in a visible\/audiable way. The student is an known to be an atheist so she probably would not even think about her recovery in those terms. The older man\u2019s relationship with God has always been a rather traditional affair.
\nHave you noticed that I am getting dangerously close to judging those two people?
\nAlthough:
\nDo I know what is hiding in their hearts? Maybe she has met God during those past 6 past painful years and no longer denies His existence and kindness? Maybe she has shot forward in her faith and love far ahead \u2013 and has outrun me by many distances?
\nMaybe he thanks God for every second of his preserved life and his heart is overflowing with gratitude that is not expressed in any conventional way?
\nOnly God knows the hearts of His creations – and the true value of human gratitude.
\nIf we are tempted to condemn those nine healed lepers who never returned to thank, we may therefore rethink our judgments.
\nIt is far safer (and more true) to see oneself as one of those ungrateful lepers who did not return to thank Jesus for healing. Because, alas, we belong to that crowd. The Samaritan was an exception.
\nHaving been saved from sure death myself, when the car my husband and myself were driving skidded on ice and having overturned, collapsed trapping me underneath, I know something about the syndrome of \u201cfading gratitude\u201d. The first reaction was correct, you may say \u2013 a surge of gratitude.. I happened to be saying rosary when we began skidding along that icy road, so I am sure it was Our Lady\u2019s saving hand that protected us. My first thought when I came to was \u201cGod does not want death of a sinner but that he may convert and live\u201d, something I once heard from a priest-friend commenting on HIS car crash. That passage gave the whole experience a proper perspective..and somehow helped me see this as expression of God\u2019s love \u2013 then gratitude flowed out of me like a river.
\nOver next 40 years, however, as other events crowded out that moment of shock and enlightenment, my gratitude shrank to a small stream, hardly worth of notice. It became a memory, one of many.. and now it helps me realize how ungrateful I am
\nI just hope God remembers the river..<\/p>\n
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, \u201cJesus, Master! Have pity on us!\u201d And when he saw them, he said, \u201cGo show yourselves to the priests.\u201d As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n