Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the  Gospel of this Sunday, October 12, 2025, entitled:  “May the Word always enlighten us.”

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II Kings 5, 14-17:  “Naaman returned to the man of God and praised the Lord.”

Psalm 97:  “The Lord has shown us his love and faithfulness”

II Timothy 2, 8-13:  “If we stand firm, we will reign with Christ”

Luke 17, 11-19:  “Has there been no one, except this foreigner, who returned to give glory to God?”

How sad life can be, and we have experienced it firsthand, when we have to move forward alone; when, due to various circumstances, perhaps beyond our control, we are left out of the decisions, joys, or feelings of those we love most. Lepers in Jesus’ time cried out from afar, lived in isolated places, and didn’t socialize with others. If their physical illness was already painful, it hurt even more to consider themselves impure, as the law dictated, and “the pure” were keen to emphasize this. Perhaps they managed to overcome the pain of their skin tearing apart irremediably, but they couldn’t overcome social rejection and the fact that it was considered a divine curse. They were, ultimately, the living dead. Because, why live if you can’t live with those you love most? Man was not made to live alone, and when he is isolated, he suffers. And when he is marginalized, he feels desperate and useless.

 Talking about leprosy or saying “leper” may surprise more than one person today, since the majority of the population believes the disease has been eradicated from the world. However, health institutions report numerous cases of leprosy in our country and around the world. Leprosy today? Of course, and not just the disease. There is another kind of leprosy that is not visible on the surface, but that is betrayed by people’s eyes and faces. Other types of leprosy and discrimination have flourished, equally painful, equally unjust, and equally prejudiced. Women expelled from their communities or their jobs, migrants treated as dangerous criminals, fences that separate worlds of people who are different, but who are, at heart, sisters—all these things are the same, races that believe themselves to be superior, “VIP” people who consider it dangerous or unclean to have contact with their “brothers”… There are lepers that hurt because they are considered “normal”, that are justified by puritanical and racist ideologies, that are influenced by social or economic positions, or that are based on moralistic and apparently religious mentalities.

Today, too, the cry of half of humanity rises, pleading from afar:  “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  And their cry is painful because they want to share in the same home as everyone else, because they want to share with their brothers and sisters, because they seek to have their word heard. Jesus does not turn a deaf ear, neither then nor today. Today, he has the same attitude of listening and reintegrating everyone, without distinction, since he has given his blood for all. We need to make this same cry our own and proclaim it to the four winds so that barriers and discrimination may be broken down. Yes, let us cry out this Sunday:  “Have mercy on us,”  but we need to say it with conviction, not fearing a skin-deep disease that distorts a pleasant face, but recognizing that other leprosy that destroys families, that divides peoples, that leaves the soul and the heart frozen. Our cry must be joined by serious and constant work for a more supportive, more humane, and more Christian humanity.

I don’t know what draws more attention after the miracle Jesus performs when he brings the ten lepers back into the community: the gratitude of the Samaritan or the ingratitude of the other nine. Ingratitude seems normal to us; gratitude seems extraordinary, and even more so because it comes from a Samaritan. He was the least suitable in the eyes of the Jewish world, and yet, upon seeing himself healed, this man understood that more important than presenting himself to the religious authority that, in his day, had marginalized him, was running to throw himself at the feet of the Lord, where he found a welcome, a new society that welcomed him, a less structured and more merciful religious authority that accepted him as a person with all his limitations. And Jesus doesn’t tell him again to present himself to the priests. He only says: “Your faith has saved you.” Faith and gratitude united in a single heart. A faith that not only achieves healing, as with the other nine lepers, but also gives him salvation. Faith and gratitude, two exquisite virtues that ennoble the heart. The immediacy and efficiency imposed by today’s culture are rich in mechanisms for asking and demanding favors, but there is no time for gratitude. Our hearts are not prepared to live life as a gift from God. Jesus teaches that gratitude is a substantial part of faith, an indispensable element in dealing with God. The person who believes he deserves everything closes off the opportunity for new gifts. Not everything we are is due to us. Not everything we have is the product of our efforts. Not everything we achieve is a simple stroke of luck. God has a lot to do with it all!

With his cross, the Lord Jesus destroys the wall of discrimination and intolerance. He breaks down the barriers we have created because of external differences and teaches us that what matters is the person, being a child of God. Our gratitude for life, for salvation, for his presence, will always be the beginning of a committed response to the many gifts he has given us.

Lord Jesus, you have shown us that barriers and borders only destroy community. Grant us the power to overcome the leprosy of selfishness and ambition, and give us a joyful and grateful heart that shares the gift of life with its brothers and sisters. Thank you for your great love, Lord. Amen.