The most obvious theme connecting our Gospel and first Reading today is the healing of leprosy but there is a second – an ‘outsider’ is healed and gives thanks to God.  St Luke, perhaps reflecting his background as a physician, puts particular emphasis on healing miracles.  He also focuses more than the other Evangelists on those on the fringes of society.  At the Incarnation it is Luke who mentions the shepherds whereas Matthew mentions the wise men.  Only St Luke and St John refer to Samaritans (the woman at the well).  It is St Luke who gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Here too it is the Samaritan not the Jews also healed who gives thanks to God just as in the Old Testament the Gentile Naaman from Syria gives thanks after initial scepticism about being asked to bathe in the Jordan.  God reaches out to those who do not yet have faith - or have it only in a somewhat distorted form - to bring them healing, in the knowledge that their faith will grow as a result.