This Sunday we welcome in our parish, Sr. Mary Jennifer Wandia from the Adorer Missionary Sisters of the Poor community based in the Diocese of Moshi in Tanzania, Africa. She is with us to do the Mission Cooperative Appeal for her community, who serve the poor, especially the most vulnerable, and the orphaned children due to HIV/AIDS that has claimed many lives of their young parents and leaving them orphaned.

Thanks to the Adorer Missionary Sisters of the Poor for showing compassion and concern for these children. Had it not been for them, we would not know that there are so many young children suffering in Tanzania, Africa, not only because of poverty, but also of AIDS/HIV that has claimed many lives of their parents. It is heartbreaking to know, and I am sure that is what the community of Sr. Mary Jennnifer Wandia also felt towards them. Now they are trying to take care of them by providing food, shelter and education.

We can further understand the work of the Adorer Missionary Sisters of the Poor in Tanzania by relating to the gospel this Sunday. As Jesus was entering the village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance crying “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”

We may ask why the lepers were at a distance from Jesus and begging with so much mercy to be cured. Because at that time, leprosy was possibly the worst affliction a family could endure. Lepers were ostracized from the entire community and had to refrain from any contact with healthy individuals because the disease was very contagious. These lepers had to leave their wives, children and friends. They had to leave the village and lead a life of loneliness, waiting for their death.

So we can imagine all the pains they were experiencing. To be cured of leprosy would be the greatest gift a person could receive because basically it was a hopeless condition. That must be the reason why Jesus was moved with pity and cured them all. But Jesus was stunned when only one out of ten remembered to be grateful to God. He said, “Ten lepers were cleansed were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

This is a reminder that we should be grateful to God for the many times He blessed us with good health, with a home to live in, with family to treasure because not all are privileged to have good health, to have a home and family to live with, like the orphan children that the community of Sr. Wandia serves in Tanzania.