Today's gospel is the Ten Leper gospel where ten are cured and only one returns to Christ. It is seen as a metaphor for forgiveness, for bridging the human gulf to God. It also pushes salvation beyond the confines of Israel as the returning leper is a "foreigner."
But what did the other nine cured lepers do? Certainly even simple gratitude and politeness would have driven them back to Christ. So what did they do? They returned to the world. They went back to their families, their businesses. They returned to their ambitions, their hopes and their desires.
The world of the leper in that time was almost monastic in its self absorbed isolation. Strangely, Christ released them and, despite the obvious debt to Christ, they allowed themselves to drift back to the world, so great is its gravity.
But what did the other nine cured lepers do? Certainly even simple gratitude and politeness would have driven them back to Christ. So what did they do? They returned to the world. They went back to their families, their businesses. They returned to their ambitions, their hopes and their desires.
The world of the leper in that time was almost monastic in its self absorbed isolation. Strangely, Christ released them and, despite the obvious debt to Christ, they allowed themselves to drift back to the world, so great is its gravity.
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