The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"Where are the nine?"

There is truly a few that will hear the words of Christ to the Samaritan. "Thy faith hath made thee whole". The majority even though they receive countless blessings from God every day are seldom made whole because they lack the complete faith and gratitude that the Samaritan had.

God's graces fall upon the whole world and there is not one who can honestly say that he has not been extremely blessed by God. But, most of the graces are only good for their bodies; while there is little that ever reaches their souls. They obviously lack this simple faith of the Samaritan.

Only in the Catholic Church are there priests ordained to heal men's souls in the Sacrament of Penance. There is no other religion in the world that has this power from God. It only occurs in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church established by Christ. This leaves a great many outside the faith. And those outside the faith do receive many graces from God just as the other nine did in today's Gospel.

There are many who God gives or allows to have many good things in this world. They are given life, health, wealth, and many other things, but this in no way means that they are pleasing to God. God is good and He only gives good things to bring us closer to Him. But, tragically most men use the things that God has given them only to turn away from Him and become more filled with their own pride and vanity.

They are already receiving their reward in this life and so there is nothing for them in eternity. The majority are as the nine in today's Gospel, who never hear the consoling words of Christ: "Go thy way, for thy faith hath made thee whole."

Success in this world is a blessing from God but, it is not necessarily an approval of the faith of its recipient. Many have some faith when they want or need something physical from God. They will even call out to God in their need, but when their prayers are answered they are so overcome with the joy of their new situation that they become self-absorbed and forget all about God. Only a few ever remember the civil gratitude that we try so hard to instill in our children. Parents must constantly remind their self-absorbed children to show their appreciation for the good that is done to them. As time passes, so many forget this lesson. We tend to forget our greatest benefactor while we become self-absorbed in enjoying His gifts. Our ingratitude does not necessarily force God to withdraw what He has given us, but, it does block the way for the more important graces that will heal our souls and make us whole.

We should be very cautious not to be scandalized by the good that God gives to many unbelievers and false believers. God's blessings are a two edge sword, and the majority only receives His blessings for their own condemnation. They will have to give an account of all that they have received. This accounting will be a very terrifying day. They will have to answer that the life, health, wealth, beauty, etc. that God has given them and was only used to forget Him and to sin against Him. And the greater the gift that was abused the greater must be the punishment meted out.

The very leprosy that these men were first inflicted with was a great grace from God. If it were not for this affliction, these men would not have come to Christ or called out to Him. And the one would have never returned to Him after he was healed. There is a whole chain of events here that must be looked at, not just the end result. Let us not fall into despair when we are given a heavy cross, but learn to see in it the medicine that is so necessary for our souls. Our physical sufferings should bring us to Christ and our gratitude must make us return to Him and give honor and glory to God. Everything that happens to us in this life is designed by God to draw us closer to Him and to develop this faith and love in us. And in this light we should learn to see more than just our pain and suffering. We should develop the ability to see that this can lead us to a greater reward in eternity.

Let us cry out as the ten lepers did: "Jesus, master, have mercy on us." Let our faith not end here, but continue on so that we come back to Him and glorify God: falling upon our face before His feet, giving thanks to God. And thus we will merit hearing the more blessed and beautiful words: "Thy faith hat made thee whole."

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