Where Does Goodness Come From?

The passage of the ten lepers prompts some fundamental questions for us:

For instance, when we are suffering, where can we find relief?

When we are broken, how can we be made whole again?

In short, where does goodness come from?

The ten lepers want answers to these same questions. Suffering and broken, they want to be made whole. They searched for the healer they heard about passing through Samaria. Finding Him they cry out from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Jesus replies simply, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

This seems like an odd instruction. Why would they show themselves to these priests? The priests cannot heal them. What the priest can do is merely determine whether they are healed or not. If the priest sees they are healed, then they could be admitted back into society. If not, they will remain in isolation.

As they are following this odd instruction, but before getting to the priest, this profound miracle happens. All ten are cleansed. Their disease is entirely wiped away.

And this is where the story gets really interesting. One of them, noticing his healing, stops in his tracks. And who is this one man? He is a Samaritan—a foreigner whose people had deep tension, even hate for, the Jewish people. He turns to find Jesus, falls at His feet, and gives Him thanks.

Jesus then asks why only the foreigner has returned and then tells the man, “Rise and go, your faith has saved you.” As he often does, Jesus uses the physical healing to point to spiritual healing as well.

Something is still odd here. Didn’t the Samaritan disobey Christ's command to go and see the priests? This is the fundamental point the story brings forth. No, he did not disobey. He actually more fully obeyed his word because Jesus is the Great High Priest. We hear this in the book of Hebrews, we have a Great High Priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God. While the Temple priests at the time could offer sacrifice for the Jewish people, they had to do so over and over again. But Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross has made right, has made whole forever all those people who he calls to be made holy.

Jesus is the new high priest. A mediator or a bridge between man and God. Jesus perfects and then offers our worship to God, and he also dispenses sanctifying grace to his people. He even shares the power to heal with the new priesthood, instituted by Him through the Church and the Apostles. Especially in the confecting of the Eucharist and in the healing sacraments of Penance and Anointing, the priest acts in persona Christ, in the person of Christ. These are powerful sacraments given to us to make us whole once more. We do well to avail ourselves of them frequently.

So, to answer the question, where do we find goodness? All goodness comes from God. The more we humbly acknowledge that the more relief and healing we will experience, just as the Samaritan.