Commentary on the Gospel of
God is sensitive to human suffering. All the people that suffered any disease and asked Jesus to heal them were healed. Even a woman of Syrophoenician origin who asked for healing for her child got the gift of healing. When ten lepers ask for mercy, Jesus healed them too.
But this time we can see a great contrast. One of the lepers is a Samaritan: not only foreigner but an enemy as well. This one must have had great faith – in contrast with the other nine. The fact that he turned back from his way to the priests, was not an act of disobedience to Jesus; on the contrary, to fulfil the order of Jesus, he had to turn back from his way. Jesus told them all to go to the priests and show themselves, but only this one discovered and believed that the Only Priest and God is Jesus.
The Samaritan must have been a really happy man. All his misfortune ceased when he met Jesus, but first of all, he was a man who, despite being a kind of “public enemy” was not afraid to entrust his life to Jesus. Jesus, in almost all the healings, says to the healed: “Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you”. Faith is a key. Although, all ten lepers were cleansed, only the last one was cured: really, wholly and profoundly, not only from leprosy, but from hatred, sin and eternal death. This is the real power of faith.
