The One Who Came Back

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In today’s Gospel, ten lepers are healed. Ten receive the miracle. Ten get their lives back. But only one comes back to Jesus.

And that is really the question at the heart of this Gospel: what do we do after God gives us what we asked for? We are often very good at praying when we are desperate. When we are sick, afraid, uncertain, lonely, we know how to cry out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” But when the crisis passes, when the prayer is answered, when life becomes normal again, it is surprisingly easy to move on. The nine were healed, but only one allowed the healing to lead him back to Jesus.

That is why gratitude is more than good manners. Gratitude is a way of seeing. The grateful person begins to realise: my life is gift, my faith is gift, the people around me are gift, even this ordinary day is gift. And this is where Saint Martin of Tours fits beautifully. Martin is remembered for seeing Christ in the poor man before him and giving him part of his cloak. He saw what others could have ignored. Gratitude does that to us. It opens our eyes. When we know how much we have received, we become more generous with what we have.

There is also something striking in Jesus’ words: “Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?” Jesus notices absence. He notices the one who returns, but He also notices the ones who do not. That is worth thinking about. Sometimes we imagine that our response to God does not really matter, that God is distant or indifferent. But this Gospel says otherwise. Jesus notices. He notices the thank-you. He notices the return. He notices when a heart receives grace and comes closer because of it.

Maybe the invitation today is very simple: come back. Come back before asking for the next thing. Come back and remember what God has already done. Come back to the Eucharist with gratitude. Come back to prayer not only with requests, but with thanks. The greatest tragedy would be to receive many gifts from God and somehow miss God Himself. The Samaritan understood something the others did not: the miracle was not the end. The miracle was meant to lead him to the feet of Jesus.

So perhaps today we can ask ourselves: when was the last time I really thanked God? Not quickly, not automatically, but honestly? What if holiness begins there—with becoming the one who comes back?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me a heart that remembers. Teach me to notice Your gifts, to return to You in gratitude, and to recognise You in the people placed before me. May every grace I receive lead me closer to You, and make me more generous toward others. Amen.

– Homily by Rev. Fr. Patrick Agbeko