On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’
The readings this weekend are all about gratitude and conversion, which is quite fitting for Thanksgiving. Catholics are a Eucharistic people, a Thanksgiving people: every time we participate in the Eucharist, we are engaging in a communal act of huge thanksgiving. Every day is Thanksgiving as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. Yes, gratitude is foundational to who we are and to everything we do.
But, when was the last time you were converted?
Of the ten lepers, only one returned to give thanks and to show that he recognized Jesus as God. The fact that he was a Samaritan who knew the Jews despised him made his gratitude even more poignant. He obviously sensed that Jesus was in no way concerned about who he was or what his religious background was. He simply returned, praising God while prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet in a true act of conversion, and Jesus assured him his faith had made him well. This meant spiritual healing as well as physical. The other nine lepers did not feel the need to be converted. They were of the Jewish faith which in their understanding was the one true faith and they felt no need to turn around and acknowledge Jesus even though it was he who brought them healing. They were on their way to be obedient to the law by showing themselves to the priests in order to be pronounced officially well and regain their status. What more did they need?
Were they grateful? Who knows? Certainly, they would have been experiencing huge relief and their minds would have been racing, thinking of the lives they could return to as normal and acceptable people. There would have been great joy as they thought of returning to their families, their friends and their jobs. However, relieved and joyful does not always equal truly grateful. The nine lepers, even though their request had been granted, immediately returned to their old way of understanding God and completely missed the opportunity to be introduced to an incredible new life, one they could never have thought of or comprehended.
We can be in the right place and doing all the right things and still be in deep need of conversion. If we do not seek conversion constantly, we will become static and possibly stagnant believers.
‘Conversion’ is a Latin term: con (altogether) and vertere (turn) meaning “to completely turn around”, or “to change in form”. Reconciliation is one point of conversion. It’s an act of recognizing the things we’ve done wrong, turning around, confessing them and receiving cleansing forgiveness which leads to gratitude and healing. But what about conversion in the midst of all that we do right? Sometimes we can be so familiar with the spiritual routines, beliefs and rituals that are so foundational to our lives that we lose the urgent consciousness that the spiritual life is not a life of simply maintaining faithfully what we have but one of continually going deeper into new discoveries of who God is and who we are.
John Foley, S.J. wrote a hymn that most of you are familiar with. It’s based on some verses from Isaiah and it’s called “Turn To Me”. The refrain goes:
“Turn to me, O turn and be saved, says the Lord, for I am God,
There is no other, none beside me. I call your name.”
I don’t care who you are or how committed you have been to the Lord, every morning, from the moment you open your eyes to a new day and in every moment throughout that day, God is saying to you, “Turn to me, turn and be saved, for I am God. There is no other, none beside me. I call your name.” Being saved is not just being pulled away from the clutches of the Evil One or from the power of death, being saved is also being pulled away from the clutches of the status quo and the feeling of “I’m doing pretty good.” Being saved is being lifted out of the quagmire of cynicism, criticism and dissatisfaction. Being saved is being freed from the heart of stone and being given a spirit of gratitude and a heart of flesh. Being saved is knowing that you can never get to the bottom of a heart like God’s, that you will never fully comprehend him but you’re willing to die trying. Being saved is coming to know your Name and entering into the joyful revelation that it was never about you and it was always about you.
In the last reflection, I said gratitude gives us wings and makes us want to fly close to the heart of God. This time I’m adding that gratitude helps us to be open to the Godwinds of grace, the grace that causes us to be changed in form - or transformed. Another thing that aids us in conversion is a willingness to say, “Maybe I don’t know it all. Maybe I have only seen part of the picture. Maybe I’ve been trying to create myself and make myself right and holy. Maybe I’ve been holding on too hard to creating myself and not allowing God to create me according to his unique blueprint for me.”
Conversion is a risk. Always has been and always will be. It’s a risk of not being the one who’s got the plan, learned the rules, knows the score and is in control. The kingdom journey is not a game plan, it’s an adventure into the ‘known unknown’, meaning we can listen to what others have to say about their journeys but in the end we need to go ourselves and find out that it’s completely different than what we assumed it would be. Conversion doesn’t necessarily mean that what we have been up to the present was in any way wrong, it just means we accept the fact that we’re never finished with being radically changed. Note that I didn’t say we’re never finished with just being made nicer, more pliant or more irreproachable. I’m talking about being Changed. Capital ‘C’.
Yes, it’s a huge risk. In turning back to give thanks to Jesus, the Samaritan leper risked everything. He was given his heart’s desire and he could have gone off like the others and returned to the old spiritual life he had always known. In turning back to Jesus, he was opening himself to a future where it would be necessary to examine all his religious beliefs and see how a poor carpenter with the power to heal could fit into his life. From then on, even if he never saw the Lord in person again, Jesus would always be there in spirit and in truth, challenging him and changing him.
May Jesus do that to us all.
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