In today’s Gospel, as Jesus enters a village, he is greeted by ten lepers. Still some distance from Jesus, they cry out to him in desperation, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” Jesus tells them to, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”, and on their way they find themselves cured, and yet only one of them – not a member of God’s chosen people, returned to thank Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we all need, not only to be aware, but to promote the dignity and rights of people who are different – by means of race, colour, religion, or any physical or mental handicap. We all need to be cleaned, to be healed, to be made whole.
We all need to see that, for God, there are no “lepers”, no outsiders. All are family, all have the same heavenly Father, all are his children, all are brothers and sisters to one another. We all need to receive from, and give to one another, the same love that God gives to each one of us.