|
|
|
28th Sunday of Year Lk 17//11-19 |
||
| Background:
The rules in the Hebrew law about “leprosy” (which covered a wide variety
of contagious diseases and not merely what we know today as “Hansen’s
Disease”) were intended to be a crude public health measure. It was necessary to
protect the whole village from such infection, so those whose faces were covered with skin
lesions were exiled until the infection had passed. In effect they were in quarantine. The
local priest was the public health official who pronounced the quarantine over. Not all
such diseases were permanent like what we know as leprosy today. Since it was assumed that
the lepers were being punished for their sins, their exile was all the more harsh. Small
wonder that the cured lepers rushed home to their families and friends. Yet they were
thoughtless. Jesus did not need their gratitude, though surely he would have liked it. But
they needed to be grateful. |
read the padre |
|
 |
Story:
Once upon a time there was a man who was struck down in his early thirties who was
diagnosed with brain cancer. He had a wife and young children and a promising
career. Suddenly all of that was swept away from him. He could barely talk or walk. He was
in constant agony. His friends and his family, except for his wife and mother, avoided
him. The doctors shook their head. It was too bad. He was a nice man and deserved longer
life. But there was nothing they could. At last he went to a very famous doctor who
offered to operate on him, even though everyone else said the tumor was inoperable. The
doctor warned the patient and his wife that he could very well die during the operation,
though he (the doctor) was pretty sure that he would survive and return to health. They
decided that they should take the risk. After nine hours of surgery, the doctor came into
the waiting room, grinned at the man’s wife and said, “Got it!” The man
recovered and went on to a happy and successful life. Twenty years later the surgeon died.
We should go to the wake, the patient’s wife said. I’d like to, her husband
replied. But it’s on the weekend and I have an important golf tournament.
|
|
