“And one of them… with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.”
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It was the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann of blessed memory who once wrote in his seminal work, For the Life of the World:
“… [I]n the Bible to bless God is not a ‘religious’ or ‘cultic’ act, but [a] very way of life. … All rational, spiritual, and other qualities of man, distinguishing him from other creatures, have their focus and ultimate fulfillment in this capacity to bless God; to know, so to speak, the meaning of the thirst and hunger that constitutes his life. ‘Homo sapiens’ [to translate: ‘the wise man’], ‘homo faber’ [‘man, the maker or artificer’]… yes, but first of all, ‘homo adorans’ [‘man, the worshipper’]. The first and basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands at the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God… .”
How is man distinguished from the brute beast? By his intellect, surely (homo sapiens)? By his ability to speak, to communicate grammatically, to formulate and to express complex thought? Or, by his dexterity, his acute perception of the physics and mechanics of the material world (homo faber), yes? But even more so, according to Fr. Schmemann: by his capacity for worship. Man is wise, yes, but beyond wisdom, beyond understanding, beyond dominion, beyond language, man was made to worship, to recognize the Divine, to stand in awe of the glory of God, and to respond in thanksgiving (eucharistia) and praise.
Now it happened as [Jesus] went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks” (Luke 17:11-16).
It is God’s very nature, brethren, to love, for as the Theologian says, “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). Indeed, it is the very personality of the Unbegotten One, the Font of Divinity, to be “fatherly,” that is, attune to the needs of his creation, his children. God cares for man; God provides for man out of his superabundant love. The same character of love applies equally to the other personalities of the Godhead. “‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was… they were cleaned” (vv. 13-14). God loves, and man responds in love, thanksgiving, and praise. “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God… giving Him thanks” (vv. 15-16).
It is in God’s nature to love. It is in man’s original design—and his redeemed nature—to worship and to give thanks. In no instance is this truth more fully realized for Orthodox Christians than in the Divine Liturgy. Men (and women, and children; young, old, sensible, handicapped, wise, and uneducated) join together as the Body of Christ, as a corporate image of the True Man, the “New Man” of whom Christ is prototype and the head (cf. Col 1:18; also 1 Cor 15:45), to offer to God a service of sacrifice, that is, true worship (cf. Rom 12:1-2) and thanksgiving. We pray, as did the Prophet King David, “For all things come from Thee, and of Thine own we have given to Thee” (1 Chron 29:14b). “Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name” (v. 13).
In today’s Gospel Reading, brethren, the grateful man—the once leprous Samaritan—stands out as an anomaly among his fellow men. One man of ten men returns to thank and bless the Lord for his act of love. This is a sad fact and truly indicative of the depth and effect of sin on fallen man. We have forgotten our original vocation, again, in the words of Fr. Schmemann above, that of “priest” (homo adorans, “worshipping man,” and homo gratus, “thankful man”). Christ will never cease to be healer, Savior, and friend. It is in his nature to love and to redeem. But it is our response which defines our relationship to our healer and Savior. Is Christ merely our benefactor (as emphasized by so many of our Resurrectional Stichera)? Is he merely benefactor, or is Christ also the object of our worship and thanksgiving? So to speak, is it a “one-way” or “two-way” street?
And if the latter—I pray to God it is true—how is this relationship expressed in our daily lives? We come to the divine services, and we receive the healing hand of God, in acts of absolution, of unction, of instruction, of fellowship. We receive God himself, no greater healing than this, in the Divine Mysteries. And on Monday, as we rise from sleep, as we begin the workday, do we pray? Do we take the time to greet our Lord, yes, as benefactor, but also: as the only proper object of our worship and thanksgiving? Christ will always be in the elements “for the healing of soul and body” on Sunday morning. Christ as perfect God will always willingly and joyfully say to us, “Your faith has made you well; go and sin no more!” (Mark 5:34). And what will our response be? “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (Matt 16:16). “Blessed be the name of the Lord, henceforth and forever more!” (Ps 113:2). “I will bless the Lord at all times!” (Ps 33/34:1). Or, will it be… an incriminating silence, an ungrateful forgetfulness.
“[Man] stands at the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God…” (Schmemann).
You might not know, brother, sister, whether you are to be single or married, if you are to work here or there, if you are to pursue this hobby or that friendship. You might not be well-educated, or incredibly skilled. You might be sad and lonely, afflicted in mind or body. This lack, this uncertainty, that exists in each of us, though very real, does not undermine our vocation as baptized members of the Body of Christ. We are broken, yes; but even in brokenness we are called to worship. We are stupid, yes, and foolish and selfish—we all suffer from a species of spiritual leprosy—but it is the fact that Christ loves us despite our sins (cf. Rom 5:8-9), and is actively working through the Mysteries of his Church to alleviate our sins, to heal us of our sins, that makes our response of thanksgiving and worship all the more appropriate.
Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity. … Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. … I will wash mine hands in innocence… that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Ps 26:1-2, 6-7).
“We praise Thee; we bless Thee; we give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, and we pray unto Thee, O our God”.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!