A young man was explaining to me why he left the Church. “Once they did away with the rule for not eating meat on Fridays I thought why listen to anything the Church says.” Apparently, this person thought that faith was a matter of following rules. If that were so, the ideal disciple would be a robot! Contrast that with the cure of the Samaritan leper. You can easily imagine the cured leper explaining to his companions his intention of returning to thank Jesus. The other nine said, but that would mean not following the command of Jesus! Jesus said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” The nine were about following the rules, the one was about doing the kind thing, the compassionate thing, the humane thing, the grateful thing. As we strive to become true disciples of Jesus we must understand that the only rule that commands complete obedience is the rule of love.
