Stand up and go: Your faith has saved you

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Andre Lesperance

This week's Gospel is Luke's account of Jesus cleansing 10 lepers, with only one returning to give thanks. Upon the man's return, Jesus says, "Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

When I read this familiar passage, the usual lesson came to mind: Make sure to give thanks to God for the good gifts he gives me. Upon further reflection, however, I could not help but wonder if there was more that Jesus was seeking besides a simple "thank you."

I began to think about the difference between the one leper who returned and the other nine who did not. Was it significant that Jesus said to him, "your faith has saved you?" (Other translations say, "made you well," and "restored you to health.")

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Oct. 10, 2004) 2 Kgs 5:14-17 Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Tm 2:8-13 Lk 17:11-19

Haven't all 10 lepers been restored to health? Or has this man somehow received more than a physical healing from Jesus?

Then I remembered that the man was a Samaritan, a disgrace in the eyes of the Jews; yet here he is "glorifying God in a loud voice" and falling at the feet of Jesus. Yes, I think there is something more here that Jesus is commending than just saying thank you.

It seems that the nine may have been focused on themselves, seeking healing only from their physical ailments. Thus, when they were physically healed, they went on their way, perhaps unchanged on the inside.

The Samaritan, by contrast, was transformed more than just physically, but turned to God, giving him praise, thanks, and glory.

This understanding of the passage seems to resonate with other healing accounts of Jesus. His main point is never the physical healing itself, but the renewal of the individual.

For example, when the people lowered the paralytic through the roof for Jesus to heal, Jesus only healed him so "that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth" (Mk 2:10). Jesus was most interested in the interior conversion of heart, the forgiveness of sins which keep our stony hearts from being tender hearts of flesh, ready to love with the intensity of God's love for us.

	Reflection questions • Where are you in need of conversion of heart towards God? • How can you glorify God in your life this week?

I can too often become focused on myself, like the nine lepers, so that I don't see my own need for continual conversion and renewal of heart. I am encouraged by this passage to reflect on the fact that faith in Jesus can save us, heal us, and make us new creations with a greater capacity to love.

Save us, Lord, from selfishness; heal us from greed; keep us ever dependent on you for the grace to love as you love; and like the Samaritan, may we find ourselves at your feet, giving glory to You with our lives! Amen.

Andre Lesperance graduated from UW-Madison in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies. He worked in campus ministry for a year in Chicago and has now returned to St. Paul University Catholic Center on the UW campus as coordinator of small groups and undergraduate ministry. He is engaged to be married in October.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

In a Nutshell Discipleship is what the fullness of a Christian life is all about. The early church initially referred to itself simply as the disciples, so clear was its understanding of being called by the Lord and entrusted with his mission. Discipleship still exists. True disciples find Jesus in the here and now, in moments of joy or of sorrow. Catholic News Service 3211 Fourth St NE Washington DC 20017 202.541.3250 cns@catholicnews.com	Food for Thought   It seems appropriate to call Jesus' followers "disciples." The word "disciple" refers to someone who has something to learn and is well positioned to learn it. We know that Jesus' first disciples had a lot to learn. At the outset, there was much that they didn't grasp. "None of the Gospels portrays [the] first ones to respond to the call of Jesus as ideal types," Passionist Father Donald Senior, a U.S. Scripture scholar, said in a 2002 speech. They proved "awkward, slow to learn, often confused," he observed. But they would become transformed. Father Senior suggested that they were open to transformation. He said: "The call of God is often disruptive, breaking into ordinary lives and asking ordinary people to bear a mission of human transformation and to experience profound and sometimes wrenching change in order to be faithful to that divine summons." full story   What Makes a Disciple? By H. Richard McCord Jr. Catholic News Service "What would Jesus think?" "What would Jesus do?" People ask these questions, sometimes in exasperation or bewilderment and sometimes as a challenge to the status quo, sensing the need to test something for its conformity to the Gospel. If such questions had been raised in the very early church, they would have been settled by those who had lived with Jesus and who would know his mind and heart. These individuals were called disciples. From among their number, the Lord chose the Twelve to be especially close to him and to continue his ministry. full story  Stories of Biblical Disciples By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS Catholic News Service Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and Jesus entered the Pharisee's home and reclined at table (Luke 7:36-50). A woman known publicly as a sinner placed herself behind Jesus at his feet. In the style of a Roman dining room, those at table would have been reclining with their heads toward the serving area in the dining room's center and their legs and feet extending back toward the wall. full story  The Ascension's Great Lesson About Discipleship By Father Paul J. Campbell Catholic News Service Almost everyone has heard the expression, "When one door closes another door opens." Unfortunately, many of us spend a great deal of time and energy banging on the closed door, saying words we probably shouldn't and trying to sue the company who made the door. Eventually we get tired and just stare at the door. I wonder if that is how the disciples felt as they stood looking up into the sky after Jesus ascended. The person they had given up everything to follow had left them. He had promised not to leave them orphans, but at that moment that is precisely how they felt. full story
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