Problems and crises test our faith. We obviously turn to God most fervently during these times when all other solutions are exhausted and a miracle seems to be the only option left. We bargain and make all kinds of promises to God with the hope that our prayers will somehow be answered.

Ironically, we forget so easily when things have returned to normalcy. Some would say that it is the very condition of humans to forget. The Arabic word for 'man' is a derivative from the same root as that of the word 'forget'. Yet, what marks humans off from other creatures is our very ability to remember, and not only to remember but to give meaning to our memories.

In today's Gospel, the leper who returned to Jesus did that - he remembered that it was Jesus who had cured him, and this memory and the meaning which the man had accorded to it moved him to return and prostrate himself at the feet of Jesus with faith and genuine thanksgiving. It is faith that helps us to make that leap of meaning from merely viewing something as mundane to recognizing the same as a God-event. Without a faith response, it is so easy to forget and lose purpose, as did the other nine lepers.