Today, do we imitate the cleansed leper that goes back to Jesus thanking him out loud? In fact, only «one of them turned back praising God in a loud voice». Jesus finds the other nine missing. St. Augustine gave the following sentence: «‘Thanks God!’: nothing shorter can be said (...) or made more efficiently than with these words».

Jesus here, as in other circumstances, says the words: «Your faith has saved you». It is faith that saves human beings, re-establishing them in their profound relationship with God, themselves and others; and faith is expressed in gratitude. Those who, like the healed Samaritan, know how to say "thank you", show that they do not consider everything as their due but as a gift that comes ultimately from God, even when it arrives through men and women or through nature.

—Faith thus entails the opening of the person to the Lord's grace; it means recognizing that everything is a gift, everything is grace. What a treasure is hidden in two small words: "thank you"!