Most people have heard the story of Christ healing the ten lepers:
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19).
This is my attempt to follow the example of the Samaritan.
There are more times in my life than I would like to admit that have desperately needed the help of others. Through painful experience I have realized that I am weak. I cannot finish the race without the help of others. This is especially true when it comes to the Christian faith.
God is Trinity. God does not know Himself outside of relationship with all three members of the Holy Trinity. Man, therefore, being made in the image, or the eikona (icon) of God, can only know himself through relationship with other humans. I know myself in the face of the other.
There is a famous story in the Orthodox Church about three secluded monks on an island who no one had ever seen before, but were rumored to be living saints. The local bishop of the area set sail to meet these three men. Upon meeting them, he asked, “How do you serve God?” One of the monks replied, “We do not know how to serve God. So we decided to start with serving each other.”
Similarly, in Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis speaks of how this process of serving others begins to drag the eikona of God to the forefront of us and thus conform us into His likeness. He says:
When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
So thank you. Thank you especially to Monte, Elizabeth, Morgan, Christian, Johanna, Allison, Athena, Katrina, and countless others who it would take too long for me to name. You are the reason I am here today.
The late Fr. Matthew Baker has been noted as saying, “I think what we need is more spiritual brothers.” He was indeed correct.
Pray for me.
