Homily of Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

“The Leper Who Remembered”

Teclus Ugwueze (Rev Fr)

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, ten lepers cried out that day, ten voices, cracked and desperate, echoing across the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee. Ten broken bodies, ten souls shunned by the world, standing far off from hope. And yet, one Voice stopped for them. One glance of mercy pierced their darkness.

 

And as they went, they were cleansed. Skin like new, sorrow turned to song! But then, only one turned back. Only one heart burned with recognition. Only one fell at the feet of the Healer, trembling with gratitude.

 

Ten were healed… but only one was saved.

 

Naaman knew that same mystery centuries before. He too was a man who had everything, power, honor, command, yet beneath the armor, his flesh was rotting. And when he finally obeyed God’s foolish-sounding command to wash in the muddy Jordan, he emerged not only clean, but changed. He confessed, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel!”

 

My friends, how easily we forget. How quickly we take mercy for granted.

We pray in desperation, but do we praise in thanksgiving?

We beg for healing, but do we bow in worship when healing comes?

 

Gratitude is not sentiment. It is revelation. It is the awakening of the soul that finally sees the hand of God in everything. The nine went on with their lives, healthy, yes, but hollow. The Samaritan alone found salvation, because gratitude opened his eyes to who Jesus truly was: not just a healer, but the Lord Himself.

 

St. Paul cries out today from his prison cell: “If we die with Him, we shall also live with Him!” That is the cry of one who has remembered, one who refuses to forget the mercy that set him free.

 

So I ask you, beloved: how many miracles have we walked past, unseeing? How many graces have we received, unacknowledged? How many times has Christ met us on the road, and we did not turn back?

 

Today, let us be the one who remembers.

Let us fall at His feet in awe and gratitude.

For the heart that remembers is the heart that is saved. Amen.