Who, O Lord, Could Save Themselves?

When the kindness and generous love

of God our savior appeared,

not because of any righteous deeds we had done

but because of his mercy,

he saved us through the bath of rebirth

and renewal by the Holy Spirit

...through Jesus Christ our Savior- Titus 3:4-5, 6

A recent Christian praise and worship song rhetorically asks the question, “Who, O Lord, could save themselves?”  This question asks us to consider two ideas:  1) Are we in need of saving, and 2) who is the savior?  The second question hinges exclusively on the answer of the first question.  A person who does believe they need to be saved, will not seek a savior.  However, this scripture passage opens the notion that our Savior, God himself, appeared on his own volition, he saved us (with baptismal imagery) and then makes us new.  The key piece of this scripture from today’s readings is the do-er of the action.  Jesus is the active participant and the ubiquitous “we” are the recipient of this divine work.  In the mercy of God, he realized that people were so buried in sin that they could not see they needed repentance and forgiveness.  

The readings, as a whole, present a theme of awareness.  The first reading from the letter to Titus calls the faithful to be aware of themselves and what they are doing.   There is a stress on obedience because the verse places focus on how to live.  This scripture provides a dynamic and paradigmatic approach to living.  This epistle seems to be a synthesis of what the life of the Church and the essential Christological doctrine of the early Church.  This particular reading provides a guide for living and makes a very brief creed statement.  

Moving forward, let’s reflect on the Church’s wisdom in placing the 23rd Psalm with the readings for today.  The reading from Titus values rejection of desire and pleasures.  The writer refers to these as foolish.  The Psalmist tells us that because the Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want.  The psalm is a beautiful and poetic image of salvation and the journey of the soul.  It would seem that the psalm foretells the Christian life.  Accepting Christ, and in baptism, we are given rest and our soul is “re-posed” for the Christian life.  God walks with us on our journey through life and though we encounter the bad things, we find strength and courage to continue to move through life.  The psalm then moves on to the Christian death.  Let us dwell in the house of God, or so says the psalmist.  The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.  

The Gospel reading today is an interesting tie-in to this.  Jesus is heading to Jerusalem leading up to the passover and he passes 10 lepers.  They ask for his pity and so he sends them to the priests and they are healed.  One came back to offer thanks.  Jesus notes that only one of ten came back and he tells this Samaritan man that he has been saved.  

Let’s unpack some of the major points I noticed about this gospel and then I will tie it into the other readings to conclude.  First, the lepers ask for the Lord to have pity on them and heal them.  The major truth in this is that they realize that Jesus has the power to heal them.  They recognize that he is not an ordinary teacher, but someone who performs works of God.  The second major truth is that Jesus is moved to help them.  This indicates that the pity, or mercy, of the Lord influences the Lord to heal these people.  One came back to offer thanks.  Scripture indicates that he realized that he was healed.  This indicates the man did not fully believe that he could be healed directly by Jesus but stilled followed the instruction faithfully.  Upon his realization, he finds Jesus and thanks him.  There is value in the presentation that few people have genuine appreciation for the work of God.  Jesus notes the Samaritan is the only one who comes back.  The foreigner returns and his fellow Jews bail.  This seems to be a warning over getting lukewarm or comfortable in faith.  The assumption is that God will always bail us out when we are in need.  This can also be applied to some who sin and then go to confession without the contrite spirit.  Their lack of conversion is represented in this gospel passage by the 9 other lepers who are healed but don’t come back and give thanks (which can also prefigure the Eucharist but that is not for this reflection). 

All of these readings call us to conversion and to a life of holiness.  Conversion is not an academic process but a working of the heart in harmony with the soul at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  The call to conversion should begin with an inward desire for holiness.  The movement of the Holy Spirit convicts sinfulness.  This moves the soul for reconciliation.  Confession is essential to holiness.  Holiness is not the absence of sin but rather living in the truth that a humble and contrite heart will not be spurned (according to the psalmist).  The year of faith has called us to renew our faith, and with this call, we should re-commit ourselves to the Sacramental life of the Church.  Today’s readings call us to holiness.  They call us to conversion.  They call us to be thankful.  They call us to be saved.