Leprosy

Instruction for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Were not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? How were they not found returning to give glory to God? (Lk 17:17-18)

Today the Gospel was read about the Savior’s healing of ten lepers, of whom only one returned to give thanks to the Lord for his healing. But what is this disease—leprosy—from which the Lord healed the ten lepers mentioned? No such diseases exist in our parts: they occur in the East, in hot countries. Still, we do have a disease somewhat similar to leprosy—that is, smallpox, when it takes its most severe form—or else a disease that comes from an unclean way of life. In those suffering from leprosy, the whole body as a rule becomes covered as if with a crust and with sores, the eyes become full of pus, the whole face and the tongue swell, and an unbearable stench comes from the mouth and from the whole body. Finally, when the disease reaches its highest stage, all the hair on the head falls out; the sores eat into the body down to the bones and become covered with worms; the limbs of the body fall away, and the sick man, tormented by his sufferings, dies. Anyone in whom signs of this disease appeared was considered unclean, and the law obliged him to go at once to the priest, who would decide whether he really had leprosy. If it was leprosy, then the sick man, on account of the extreme contagiousness of this disease, was cut off from his own family and driven out beyond the town or village. The exiles withdrew into the forests, built huts for themselves there, and lived on what their relatives brought them. From such a horrible, malignant, contagious disease the Lord healed the ten lepers mentioned, of whom only one, a Samaritan, proved grateful before the divine Wonderworker.

While marveling at the ingratitude of the nine who were healed, let us turn to ourselves and see whether we are better than those nine, and whether we resemble the tenth. We all suffer from spiritual leprosy, that is, from sins; before the purest and most radiant eyes of God all people are full of spiritual leprosy and impurity, such as: pride, condemnation, vainglory, vanity, weak faith, hardheartedness, evil, guile, fornication, intemperance, sloth, partiality, hypocrisy, envy, and foul, wicked, and blasphemous thoughts. This leprous sin penetrates a person to the very bones and marrow, infects the whole of human nature, soul and body, and infects it continually. We have, too, a Physician for this leprosy—this same Lord Jesus Christ, Who is always ready to heal us of it. Are we better than those lepers who came to the Savior for healing and, standing afar off, cried aloud to Him: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us? Do we have as much faith and as much zeal for the wholeness of our soul, for our spiritual health, as these lepers had? Holy Church daily raises her voice on behalf of all of us who are ailing with the leprosy of sin: Lord, have mercy, and sometimes many times over in a single act. And what then? Do we also raise this brief but necessary prayer from the depths of our hearts? For it was precisely from the lepers that holy Church took this prayer and applied it to us, lepers in soul. Indeed, for all of us this prayer is as necessary as breathing, as food. Sinning without ceasing, we must without ceasing repent, acknowledge our guilt, ask mercy of the Lord, and not exalt ourselves: for God resists the proud[1]. Each of us must be zealous for his own salvation and not let his spiritual leprosy go untended, not put off his repentance to lengthy days, which may come to an end not today, then tomorrow—every day repent diligently in secret before God, asking forgiveness, and at least once a year show the whole of his leprosy at confession to a priest, to whom God has given the authority to absolve and to heal the leprosy of the soul. This is one thing; here is another obligation laid upon us: when, after the prayer of repentance or after the Mystery of confession, we sense that our spiritual leprosy has been healed and has passed away, and that we have become sound in soul—we must be thankful for this to our Savior, Who even now heals us unceasingly—and out of a sense of gratitude and out of respect for righteousness guard ourselves henceforth against sins and falls. This feeling of gratitude and this fear of sin will dispose the Benefactor toward still greater benefits in the time to come, and will make our soul gentler, more sensitive, more alive, more righteous, and firmer in virtue.

Let us then imitate the tenth of the lepers, who, sensing himself healed by the word of the Savior, returned to the Benefactor and with deep feeling gave Him thanks, and heard from Him that his faith alone had saved him, and not any merit, not any virtue. So then, since all of us are full of inward leprosy, like the ten lepers let us all cry out from the depths of our soul: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! Lord, have mercy! And let us unceasingly call out in secret: Lord, have mercy! Amen.