October
9, 2016
28th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
2
Kings 5:14-17; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19
There is this
story about a man who died and went to heaven. St Peter welcomed him and gave
him a tour around heaven. They entered a building where the angels were
working. In the first floor of the building, they saw many angles who were very
busy with their work. St Peter said,
“This is the place where God receives all the prayers of petitions and requests
of people on earth.” They went to the second floor and they saw a number of
angels who were also busy with their work. St Peter said, “This is the place
where God receives complaints and protests from people on earth.” Finally they
went to the third floor and they saw few angels doing nothing. St Peter said,
“This is the place where God receives prayers of thanksgiving from people on
earth.” When people pray, many present their petitions and wishes to the
Lord. Many also present their complaints to the Lord. But there are very few
people who give thanks to the Lord.
Jesus also had a
similar experience in the gospel today. He healed 10 lepers but only one came
back to give thanks to the Lord. What do our readings for today tell us about gratitude
to God? How can we express our gratitude to the Lord?
Let
us reflect on this in three points:
GRATITUDE
IS AN ACT OF FAITH TO GOD. In the first reading, we hear the account of the healing
of Naaman from the leprosy through Elisha. The prophet Elisha told him to dip himself
in the river Jordan seven times. At first Naaman was insulted because there are
many beautiful rivers in his place in Syria compared to river Jordan. But eventually
he obeyed Elisha and the miracle happened. Notice the attitude of Naaman after
his healing from leprosy. He did not just say, “Mission accomplished. I can now
go home and live a normal life.” Naaman returned to Elisha bringing with him 10
carriages containing gifts of fine clothes, money and precious stones. But
Elisha refused to accept them because it was not really him who healed Naaman.
Who healed Naaman? It was God who healed Naaman of leprosy. What did Naaman do
to express his gratitude to God? He said, “From now on I will only worship and
offer sacrifice to the God of Israel.” This shows that gratitude is an act of faith
to God. When we give thanks to the Lord for the blessings and gifts we receive
in life, we also profess our faith that He is the Giver of these gifts.
Gratitude shifts our focus from the gifts to the Giver of the gift. What can we
do to be grateful to the Lord?
REMEMBER
THE BLESSINGS GOD HAS GIVEN YOU. In the gospel out of the 10 lepers
who were healed only one returned to Jesus to give him thanks. The other 9
lepers who were also healed did not return because they already got what they
wanted. Sometimes this can happen to us. When God answers our prayers and
showers us with His blessings, sometimes we get fascinated by the gifts to the
point that we end up forgetting the Giver of these gifts. So in order to be
grateful, we need to realize that our life is filled with blessings, great and
small, from the Lord. Let us count our blessings and not worries in life. This
is exactly what Paul did in the second reading. He was suffering in prison
because of preaching about Jesus. To be persecuted and imprisoned are not considered
as gifts. But look at the attitude of Paul: In the midst of suffering, Paul
remembered the many blessings he received from the Lord. This encouraged him to
bear any hardship as an act of thanksgiving to the Lord. Like Paul we can also
thank the Lord even for the not so good things that happened to us. God
sometimes permits them to happen to purify us and make us better persons. I
heard someone say, “Thank you Lord for saving me from the car accident. From
now on, I will drive safely.” Another said, “Thank you Lord for the cancer.
This sickness led me to value things I took for granted.” To thank the Lord for
the good and not so good things that happened to us is a sign of mature faith.
How can we express our thanksgiving to the Lord?
GRATITUDE
TO GOD IS EXPRESSED IN THE EUCHARIST. There are many ways of expressing
gratitude to the Lord. But I think the most basic of them all is the Eucharist.
The word Eucharist actually means “thanksgiving”. Every Eucharist, whatever our
intentions are, is always an act of thanksgiving to the Lord. As Jesus welcomed
with joy the Samaritan leper, Jesus is also pleased with us who come to mass
every Sunday.
As we continue
with our mass, let us pray for the grace to have a grateful heart. They say that whenever we look at the cross, we are reminded of two letters: T and Y. TY is
short for Thank You.
Every time we look at the cross let us always say Thank You Lord for all the blessings You
have given us. Thank you Lord for the good and not so good things that happened
to me. Let us thank the Lord for his faithfulness and generosity. May this Eucharistic
celebration express our sincere gratitude for the Lord. Amen.
