Imagine this scene. The ten lepers have left the presence of Jesus and on the way they realize they were cleansed of their disease. One of them says, “I’m going back to thank him.” The other nine see him leave and start to debate among themselves. “Should we go back too? But no, he told us ‘go and show yourself to the priest.’ We’d better do what he told us to do.” So they proceed on their way. When Jesus asked the question: “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?” can’t you hear the nine saying, “Don’t chide us. We are doing where you told us to do.” The lesson from this imagination exercise is that sometimes following the rules is not what is called for. The nine did not understand that there are times when doing the human thing, the thing that helps to build bonds among people is more important than blindly obeying some regulation that does not take into account the particular circumstance in which one finds oneself. This understanding is even enshrined in the canon law of the church #1752 “salus animarium est lex suprema,” the salvation of souls is the supreme law.
