18. My Monologues with the Ten Lepers
(Lk 17)
Dear Brethren with the disease of Leprosy,
Despite your much dreaded disease of leprosy,
Oh, boy, it is, indeed, very heartening to see you, the age old enemies, travelling together, shedding your ancestral hate and enmity, sharing with each other your pain, your sorrow,suffering your sadness and sickness together
Though a temporary togetherness, it's great!
In sickness, in suffering, and in sorrow,
We Humans seem to sink our differences,
our prejudices, and our animosity, Don't We?
In tragedies and in trails, we travel together.
Isn't it a very Positive Trait of us, Humans?
Just as, joy joins us together in celebration,
So does sorrow gathers us to grieve in group.
Oh, Lord Our God of Health and Healing,
We thank you for infusing in us, Humans, this inborn, inbuilt Spark of Solidarity in Suffering, Unity in Celebrations, and thus sharing both!
May these sparks keep inflaming us, Humans!
May our Humanity be kept ever engulfed by it!
Lord, may we be united in cheers and in tears!
Dear Brethren with the disease of leprosy,
I guess, the self righteous religious and moral custodians didn't care to condemn you for mixing and mingling with one another, right?
In their sight, you, already are condemned!
In their mind, you, already are justly punished
In their heart, you, already are blindly hated.
Dear Brethren with the disease of leprosy, This detesting, this debilitating disease has brought you together irrespective of rivalry.
Oh, my Jewish Brethren, it is very caring and considerate of you, to have accommodated, the lone and the long Defiled Samaritan!
Though very unjewish, you did it! Great Indeed!
Dear Brethren with the disease of leprosy,
Due to this detesting disease you carry
You were abandoned by your loved ones.
You were isolated by your own Community.
You were abhorred by your own Religion
You were haunted by the thoughts of self hate
You were left in the lurch and kept in scorch
Despite, the pain from the festering eruptions,
Despite, the nauseating stench of rotting flesh,
Despite, the irrational, inhuman social boycott
Despite, the mental agony, spiritual anguish
You did not give up your hope to get healed!
Your everyday life as outcasts must have been ebbing your energy and sapping it away, right?
Dear Brethren with the disease of leprosy,
Being compulsorily cut off from your own family and from your familiar surroundings, an agonizing experience, it must have been!
Loneliness was your unwelcome companion!
Sadness must have been your frequent feeling.
Bitterness might have been your major attitude
As Jesus, the Source of Healing, passed by, your plea for pity and your cry for compassion
reached his ears and went right into his heart.
He stopped, He stood, He looked and He told you: "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
As told, you went to show yourselves to Priests
And on you way, YOU WERE HEALED! Bingo!
Dear Brethren who got healed, congratulations!
Immense must have been your Joy, right?
Your eyes must have been gleaming, right?
Your faces must have been glowing,right?
Your voice must have been choking, right?
Your hearts must have been throbbing, right?
Yes, you do deserve, deserve to be enthralled!
Yes, it is true only One returned, it is sad too
It is was the Lone and Lonely Samaritan!
He was One from those Despised Samaritans
He was One from those considered Ungrateful
He was One from those thought of Unfaithful
He was One from those treated as Half Jews
He was One from those held as Betrayers!
Dear Healed and Returned Samaritan Brother,
Of the whole lot, the Only One who thought of
Thanking the "Master" was You and You alone
What made you return and thank the Master?
Were you bowled over by his overwhelming
Compassion in spite of you being a Samaritan?
Were you moved by his unbiased attitude?
Dear Healed and Returned Samaritan Brother,
You were surprised as the Master treated the Jews and the Samaritan alike, Weren't you?
You were happy as He affirmed your action
and acknowledged your affectionate gratitude.
As you returned home besides being healed
You were also made well and whole, right?
Dear Healed and Returned Samaritan Brother,
Can't we be rightly sure that you had a new
found hope for living and joy in Thanksgiving?
Can't we be rightly sure that you continued to keep on sharing your joy to all those around?
Can't we be sure that you began to believe Him
who healed you as your Lord and your God?
Dear Healed and Returned Samaritan Brother,
If it were me, I wonder! whether I would
have shown similar eagerness to go and thank!
I might have told myself, "I would do it later.."
I might have been tempted at first to go home!
Oh, Brother dear, you do remind me of the greatness of having a grateful heart, thank you
Dear Healed Jewish Brethren,
How come it didn't occur to you to join your Samaritan companion to thank the Master?
Did you deliberately desist from joining him?
Did you really feel forced to follow the order,
"Go, show yourselves to the priests." rather than going back to give thanks to the Master?
In a sense, like any other Jew, you just wanted to obey the orders and fulfill all the rules of
the ritualistic purification, right, my Brethren?
After visiting the priests, had you wished, you could have gone to thank the Master, right?
Had you done so, it would have been recorded.
May be, you didn't want to thank the Master.
May be you did not feel the need to thank Him
Be it due to an act of deliberate arrogance or Due to an act of causal negligence, whatever!
The fact is: you all just got physically healed.
Yet failed to become whole and totally well!
To get wholistically healed of body and soul
it required a sense of indebtedness to others!
Dear Healed Jewish Brethren,
Your race and nation were chosen and blessed.
Not by right but by gratis granted by the Lord.
As time and tide passed by, you began to take
things for granted, as the Lord's chosen ones you felt entitled to all blessings and protection
So you did not feel the need to thank the Lord.
Dear Healed Jewish Brethren,
I have been through it, I feel I deserve and am
entitled to Lord's blessings and protection
Being a priest I get honor and privileges and
as I get to used to them, I do demand them.
Often I do expect them and when they don't happen as I want, I feel hurt and I withdraw myself into a misanthropic silence, That's me!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
As I look back I see I am often afflicted with the leprosy of anger, of hate, of lust for power, pleasure, and position and you know it all, Don't You? My Lord, my God, that's part of Me!
In your loving mercy, you have healed me..
You keep healing me whenever I call upon You. But I am yet to get well, like the Samaritan!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
Unlike the healed Samaritan, I don't always
feel neither the urge nor the need to keep returning to you, to be grateful to you and to offer you my Thanksgiving for the gifts of forgiveness and healing you keep giving me!
Often I feel, others do owe me, must oblige me!
My Ego is partly puffed up, partly proud!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
Like the Samaritan, I want to keep getting healed, getting well, and getting whole anew.
Then I want to keep returning to you to offer Thanksgiving and Gratitude day in, day out!
My Lord and my God, as I am in the last phase of my life, I want to keep on counting your innumerable Blessings both small and Big!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
From the moment you knit me together in my mother's womb till now you have been showering on me blessings after blessings.
My parents who cooperated with you as my Co-Creators are your first blessings to me!
Your blessings kept on coming to me through my siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, other relations and acquaintances.
I offer you Lord, my sincere Thanksgiving!
As I moved on to school, my Lord, you kept on sending me your blessings through my teachers and friends. Then moving on to college and seminary, even there you kept providing me with your blessings in the form of staff and fellow students to guide me along!
I offer you Lord, my sincere Thanksgiving!
And then you came to me with the Big Blessing
in the form of a share in your Priesthood! Then you packed me off to distant lands and nations, to countries and to continents, to cities and villages, to churches and hospitals to colleges and universities to witness you!
I offer you Lord my sincere Thanksgiving!
Lord, you send me your blessings by thousands and thousands in the form of loving, caring, supporting people, men and women, young and old, healthy and sick who brought me your love, care, and concern!
Your blessings came to in various ways!
I offer you Lord my sincere Thanksgiving!
Lord, I thank you for standing by me through
my failures and encouraging me through my
success, thank you for your Patience with me!
Lord, I keep offering you my Thanksgiving as I struggle to witness your Unrequited Love, your Unending Patience,and your Uncondional Forgiveness, and it keeps on and on..unending!
Lord, I thank you for the wonder of my being,
a broken earthen vessel holding your Image and Likeness for the last seventy years or so!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
On every anew I keep offering You
my humble and sincere
Thanksgiving
Lord, I love to spend some time in silence, in your presence, in Thanksgiving!
"Speak Lord, your servant is listening!"
Amen
JoAchen
Friday, November 21, 2014
joekallani@gmail.com
PS
These Reflections are neither pure scientific exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations.
They are my devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth.They are a part of my journaling..
Dear Reader, as I keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to do the same for me.
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