GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, WEEK 32 IN ORDINARY TIME, 11 NOVEMBER 2026, ST MARTIN OF TOURS

Luke 17:11-19.  During their long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples met crowds coming to hear his teaching, individuals with questions (not always friendly), sick people,  people in distress, in short a great variety of people.  In our gospel today they meet a group of ten lepers standing well away from them (the required distance was fifty yards if the wind was blowing), a grim reminder of their isolation from the rest of society.  They could not go near the Temple or anywhere else people gathered and so they were isolated in a profound sense.  They called out to Jesus in recognition, calling him Master, as others had done when seeking a healing, acknowledging Jesus’ power.  On the long journey Jesus performed only a few miracles and healings, instead focusing on his teaching of the Kingdom of God.  These words occur eight times between 17:11 and 18:30, emphasising the point.  But wait – any healing or other miracle occurring on the way are moments of revelation, signs of the Kingdom of God, so Jesus’ words and deeds proclaim the same thing, the Kingdom.  If they are revealing signs of the Kingdom, then they are also signs that Jesus is Messiah, and King.  When the lepers are healed, they prostrate themselves before Jesus, a gesture indicating that he was King.  Their healing was only part of the story.

When they were healed, Jesus directed them to go to the priests in the Temple to have their state of ritual purity ratified; if they had not done so, they would remain ritually unclean until they did so.  Now we come to the point of this whole incident.  After their healing, only one of the ten lepers returned to give thanks to Jesus, and he was the only non-Jewish person among them – he was a Samaritan, not always on the friendliest terms with Jews.  The Greek word for ‘thanksgiving’ here is eucharisteo.  Literally it means ‘to be well-gifted,’ so that thanksgiving is the only right response.  It reminds us that Mass is a great thanksgiving and sacrifice of praise for being so well-gifted that thanksgiving is our right response for all God’s mercies, including the gift of salvation.