Priest Ioan Bădiliţă
He simply realized that one moment in the arms of the Doctor it was much more precious than all remedies in the world
We say that he went back and thanked as we thank to the cashier from the cash register after she gives us the change and the receipt in our palm. No! He who had to shout out loud all the time `Impure, impure` and `mercy, mercy` cried to Jesus from all his power, with a loud voice. The gratitude of the leper Samaritan to Jesus came out of his depth almost breaking all his internal organs.
The healed leper turned back because the healing without the changing of the mind doesn`t mean anything. He turned back as he wanted more than a dermatological healing. He wanted to be revived from the dead, from the tomb of the thought that he was just a trash thrown at the edge of the village. So let him be resurrected. Let him throw the rags which had hidden his disfigured body of the eyes of the others and of his own soul. Jesus fulfilled his wish with huge generosity. `Get up, be revived and go.` – Ἀναστὰς πορεύου –
The other nine did not go back because they looked only at their skin which was healed. The tenth leper went back because he looked right into the genome of his own soul, where his God sow the most beautiful flower of the paradise – Eucharist – the thanking. At the Supper before His Death Christ thanked marking in Eucharist the bread and wine of our daily lives. Then for the joy which was offered He did not avoid the curse of the Cross. The thanking precedes to the miracle. When He fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish Jesus thanked then He multiplied these. The thanking precedes the miracle. When He stood with tears in His eyes before the tomb of Lazarus Jesus raised His gaze and prayed: `Father, I thank You for listening to me!` Then it took place the miracle of the dead coming back from Sheol. Thanking precedes resurrection. Gratitude revives the dead.
Yes, this is thanking: it is the language by which souls give to each other the kiss of peace, it is the hidden song of the heart, it is the life which becomes Liturgy.
παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε!
