Homily For the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Worship: The Key To Internal And External Order

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily For the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 12, 2025

In ancient times, leprosy deeply frightened people, just as contagious and mysterious diseases scare us today. However, besides the fear of catching infectious diseases, people were more worried about the consequences of such diseases. Leprosy rendered someone ritually unclean and, therefore, incapable of engaging in the act of worship. That is the reason why the person responsible for examining the patient in ancient Israel was the priest. It was the duty of the priest to oversee and preside over Israelite worship, including deciding who could and could not participate in the temple.  

In today’s Gospel (Luke 17:11-19), we hear the story of Jesus healing ten lepers, with only one returning to give thanks. As Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and shouted, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” These lepers, who begged for a cure, were not just worried about their health but also about their inability to participate in temple worship. They were Israelites banished from the temple and excluded from the worship of Yahweh. Exclusion from temple worship was a serious punishment for an ancient Israelite. The temple was the literal dwelling place of Yahweh on earth. Therefore, excluding an Israelite from worship was a deep spiritual disconnect from Yahweh, leading to social isolation and preventing the atonement of sins. 

Although many people today avoid worshiping God, they speak openly with confidence and joy about being atheists. While some religious individuals, including Catholics, often skip attending Mass on weekends without serious reasons, this has not always been the case throughout history. Our generation believes we are wiser, more open-minded, and more intelligent than those who came before us. Before his death, Christopher Hitchens, a leading advocate of new atheism, stated that people should dare to seek knowledge and not settle for others' opinions or accept strange stories from ancient times. He also said that it was time for people of faith to grow up and discard their childish preoccupations. Well, he's late now, and I wonder what kind of conversation he had with God. 

What did Jesus say to the ten lepers? “Go show yourselves to the priests.” What does that mean? The Lord is essentially telling them to return to the temple, from which they have been away for so long. He is sending them back to a place they were meant to be. He is reconnecting them with God, the Source of being and life. In healing them, Jesus was, symbolically speaking, gathering the tribes and bringing them back to worship the true God. By the way, these lepers stand not so much for the socially ostracized but for those who have wandered away from proper worship, the ones who are no longer in communion with the Church and are no longer able or willing to worship the true God. 

But why is the worship of God so important? What does worship really mean? To worship is to direct a person’s entire life toward the living God, and in doing so, we become rightly ordered both internally and externally. Worshipping God indicates what your life is ultimately about. Worship is not something God needs, but something we need very much. The true and living God is not a needy God. God is self-sufficient and self-existent. He needs nothing from me, you, or anyone else. The great St. Augustine of Hippo said, “If we worship God, God is not made any greater. If we don’t worship God, God is not made any smaller. But if we worship God, we are made greater, and if we do not worship God, we are made smaller.” One of the key ways to understand a person is by identifying their ultimate concern in life. What someone worships reveals a lot about them. If it’s not the living God, they, like the ten lepers, are in exile and have become unclean. 

Let me conclude with this thought: every one of us, no matter how successful and important we are, has some form of leprosy. That is to say, a disease, a mental illness, a persistent moral flaw, or an addiction that torments us, humiliates us, and frightens us. As hard as we may try to dismiss it, everyone has something that worries, bedevils, shames, and frightens us. St. Paul calls it “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7), which he pleads with the Lord three times to remove. But the Lord tells him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Do we want to eliminate this thorn in our side? Yes! But we should be cautious because that thorn might be precisely what God is using to bring us closer to Him. The very thing we want to eliminate from our lives immediately might be the same thing God is using to draw us nearer. God can use your weakest point to reach you. As the saying goes, “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” However, if you genuinely desire to be healed, you must walk the path of humility and come to Jesus. You must see Him as someone you cannot do without. You must surrender to His Lordship and allow Him to lead and guide you. You must do what He commands. 

God bless you!