Two things connect our first reading and our Gospel today. They both concern miracles of healing in which God reaches out to the lepers, healing them from that terrible disease. And, in response to these healing, the leper Naaman in our first, and the Samaritan leper in the Gospel, give thanks to the Lord. Leprosy was a very feared disease throughout history. In fact, in the Middle Ages in Europe, priests were enlisted to perform a special ceremony that would separate the leper from the rest of the community. The leper often was required to have a clapper or a bell with him that he would ring if a non-leper was approaching, alerting the person to stay away.
Pope Francis wants us to learn from the missionary saints and martyrs in this Extraordinary Missionary Month, as their testimony is an expression of the Church scattered throughout the world. We have a great missionary saint who connects us to today Gospel and First Reading about lepers. In 1873, a young Belgian priest who was working in Hawaii volunteered to go to the island of Molokai, a place where lepers lived in forced isolation. He arrived on the island only with his cassock and his prayer book. Damien knew that leprosy was a very feared disease, but he knew that God was calling him to serve them. Damien wrote his brother saying – “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all for Christ.” He built a church on the island upon his arrival. He ministered to the lepers in acts of service: cleaning their sores and ulcers, helping build homes and furniture for them, and making coffins and digging graves when lepers would die. It was difficult, challenging work, but Damien maintained an attitude of joy and thanksgiving by drawing strength on daily mass and the Eucharist. Damien wrote: "Having the Lord at my side, I continue to be happy with cheerfulness of heart and a smile on my lips." Father Damien eventually contracted leprosy himself. Although he experienced isolation, rejection and abandonment, as church and government authorities often neglected to offer him the support he needed, he remained faithful to God to the end, dying of leprosy at the age of 49. Father Damien is now a saint and remains very loved in Hawaii and throughout the world. In fact, a statue of Father Damien sits in front of the Hawaii State Capitol building.
I thought about Father Damien in conjunction with today’s Gospel, because not only did he reach out to the group of lepers who were abandoned and discriminated against, not only did he offer them Christ’s love and mercy, but Father Damien also always lived in thanksgiving to the Lord, even in challenging circumstances, even when he contracted leprosy himself. We are all called to emulate Father Damien in our own way and in our own circumstances: to live our lives in thanksgiving to the Lord and to reach out to those who are lepers in our own society, to those on the margins. However, being realistic, we know that giving thanks to the Lord in all things is never easy.
We are all to give thanks to the Lord, not only for the blessings he gives us, and for the grace he gives us to meet our challenges in life, and those challenges in life can be very difficult, can’t they? There is one practice I keep each day as a priest: every morning as I wake up I thanks to the Lord for the opportunity to serve him and his people as a priest here in the Diocese of Jackson, and I give thanks for all of my parishioners. I do this even when I have a tough day, and believe me, we priests can also have tough days. A lot of time, life is all about perspective, isn't it? There were ten lepers in the Gospel who asked Jesus to have pity on them and their situation. All ten of them were healed. But only one of them came back to give thanks. In return, this Samaritan leper received another blessing. Not only was he healed of leprosy, but in his faith,he was made whole both body and soul, he received the blessing of salvation through this faith as well. We dwell on a lot that is going on in our world – families struggling to make ends meet as things get more expensive, a world where violence and terrorism are common occurrences, and a political landscape where there is so much strife and discord. We can dwell on the problems and struggles we have in our own personal lives as well. All those things are very real, but we’re also called to give thanks for the blessings we have both in good times and in bad. With a thankful and joyful faith, we reach out to others, especially those on the margins. There are modern-day lepers in our own society, those who need our compassion and care.
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