November 11, 2026 – Wednesday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time
Titus 3:1–7; Luke 17:11–19
Homily
In this Gospel, we see ten lepers healed—healed because they believed. All ten believed and were therefore all healed by their faith; yet only one thought to return to give thanks. He was a foreigner. He was a Samaritan. Luke, who is the only evangelist to offer us this account, emphasizes this fact. What interests him first is what the lepers ask for, and second, Jesus’ words upon the Samaritan’s return, whom He calls “that foreigner.” This is, in fact, the only time the word “stranger” (allogenes) appears in the New Testament. Jesus shows great respect for this stranger, this Samaritan, for whom going to show himself to the priests of Israel made no sense. This stranger wants to prostrate himself by throwing himself to the ground before Jesus like a servant or a slave before his master, to give thanks to Him. But Jesus does not accept this servile attitude and tells him to get up: “Get up,” He says to him. God, who created human beings in His image, expects them to stand upright before Him, in all their dignity as sons and daughters of God.
This story can serve as a good opportunity for us to reflect on our attitude toward “strangers,” remembering that Jesus himself came to us as a stranger. Moreover, each of us is one of the lepers healed by Jesus. Are we the one who returned to give thanks, or one of the other nine?
If we have even a little self-knowledge, we know that we are all wounded beings. We all carry our own burden of wounds. These wounds may be superficial, or they may run deep. They may be physical, psychological, or spiritual in nature. We may have been wounded during our childhood, or as young adults, or later in life. We have experienced various kinds of failures in our lives. And, on top of all that, we obviously bear the wounds of our sins.
Jesus offers us healing from all these wounds. In reality, we do not have to wait for him to come and perform a miracle within us, for we all have within ourselves a power capable of healing all our wounds. This healing power that we carry within us is Christ dwelling in our hearts. This healing power needs to be released and activated; and it is through faith. Now, faith is born of a personal encounter with Christ himself or, at times, with a messenger of Christ—a prophet.
In his book *The Grammar of Assent*, John Henry Newman, when discussing the assent of faith, draws an important distinction between conceptual (or “notional”) assent and real assent. One can fully assent to all the “truths” taught by the Church yet not have a real relationship of faith with God. Conversely, it is possible—even without knowing the Church’s teaching or being able to intellectually adhere to it—to have a real relationship of faith with God.
Not only must we be attentive to recognizing the messengers Jesus sends us, but we are all called to be prophets to one another—and thus called to be a source of faith and healing for one another.
In reality, this grace of healing occurs so often in our lives that we often do not pay enough attention to it. Like the nine lepers in the Gospel, we usually forget to return to say “thank you” and to offer God our praise and worship.
During this Eucharist, let us give thanks to God for becoming, in Jesus, the healer of all our ailments and wounds, and for delivering us from our sins. Let us also ask Him—who became a stranger among us—to grant us a spirit of compassion toward all strangers and refugees among us.
- Today we commemorate Saint Martin of Tours
Armand Veilleux
