The struggle between Good and Evil is one that humanity has been dealing with from the first moments of time. It does not take much to recognize the presence of evil in our world, but we find it much more difficult in our daily lives to see God's invitation to Love and then to respond to it. Where do we look for Him? In the cathedrals of the world? On the mountaintops? On the shores of the sea? In the heart of the forest? The Scriptures would point us to our own cities, our own homes, our own selves.
If our faith in Jesus and our love of God do not bring joy and healing to our homes, and peace and justice to the streets of our cities then it must be true that we still have not discovered the Christ.
We have read the story of the Ten Lepers so often throughout our lives that we sometimes take the point of the story for granted. In each of our lives there are moments when we are confronted by the difficult challenges of trying to live our faith and of trying to understand what it means to witness to the kingdom of God in our lives. There are moments when everything around us tells us to keep moving along with the other nine. These are the moments when we are too preoccupied celebrating our own lives to think of anything or anyone else.
Even so, these are also the moments when we, too, have the opportunity to stop and turn back, to find ourselves at the feet of the Lord, in thanksgiving and praise, offering ourselves as disciples and witnesses.
Each and every one of us must strive to identify with this saving mission of the Lord. Every one of us must keep trying in all of our activities to bring the fullness of life to His people. We need to examine ourselves in the light of this definition and purpose.
The "fullness of life" that Jesus is talking about is much more than mere physical existence. He clearly means the God-life to which we are called to experience by creation, by redemption, by sanctification. Jesus lived among us, died and rose again so that we would each realize the fullness of His Father's gift of Life and Love.
We have been given an invitation - an invitation, not to go show ourselves to the priests to but to live life in its fullness. So in all that we do, individually and communally, we should be life-givers, life-enhancers.
All of us who have been touched, cleansed and healed are invited by the Lord to act on our own faith to turn back, to change direction a little and be as approachable and welcoming to the outsider as He was.
