2013-10-10 Daniel Daring 2013 articles 2012 articles
28th
Sunday: Gratitude
2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19
Thank you.
Such a simple and meaningful phrase. We use it with our loved ones, friends and
those we meet for the first time. Thank you. An expression of gratitude
for something that was done to us. When was the last time you have used it?
Ten
lepers asked Jesus for help. All of them got cleansed. Only one thanked Him.
Unlike Jesus, I am not really surprised. Life abounds with similar stories. A
friend of mine, a successful single lady, is being literally milked by her
relatives and so-called friends. She should be a millionaire; yet, she is lucky
to have few thousand pesos on her account. A great example of selflessness it
is, but those who ask for help seldom express their gratitude. They have that
very strange idea that it is their right to ask and her duty to give.
Ten
lepers asked Jesus for help. All of them got cleansed. Only one thanked Him.
Jesus expressed his disappointment: “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the
nine others?” (Luke 17:17). And I think that not much has changed since then.
We all pray to God, asking for things we deem to be extremely important. We even
promise Him to reform our lives, if only He will help. We get our wishes and off
we go to our lives, forgetting Him, forgetting our promise. Our devotion is as
long as our need for His help. Anyway, it was our right to ask and it was His
duty to give. “Gratitude may be the purest measure of one's character and
spiritual condition. The absence of the ability to be grateful reveals
self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get, so I do
not need to be grateful” (The New Interpreters' Commentary, 327).
Ten
lepers asked Jesus for help. All of them got cleansed. Only one thanked Him.
Gratitude runs opposite to self-centeredness. It realizes that all is grace.
Life, health, friendship, love are gifts. A grateful person never takes them for
granted; and she dares not to belittle the Giver of these gifts. “How can I
repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (Psalm 116:12). “One of them,
when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw
himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him” (Luke 17:16). But, there is still
something more about gratitude. It is an expression of faith. By returning to
Jesus, the Samaritan leper declared his faith, as if saying: 'Master! It is
through you that God touched my life.' Jesus, on the other hand, awarded his
faith with something the leper could never dream to ask for: “Your faith has
saved you” (Luke 17:19). The man was not only cleansed; he had been
transformed. Another life was touched: a believer was born.
Ten
lepers asked Jesus for help. All of them got cleansed. Only one thanked Him.
Whom do we identify ourselves with? The nine ungrateful ones or the one
grateful? The word Eucharist originates from a Greek noun that means
thanksgiving. The verb, eucharisteo, means thank, give thanks, be
thankful, be grateful. Once, I heard a priest concluding the Eucharistic
celebration with this statement: 'Our mass is ended, but our Eucharist
continues. Go in peace to serve the Lord and one another.' How true! “Give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus”
(1 Thessalonians 5:18). Like the Samaritan leper, we should consider ourselves
the Eucharistic people, people of thanks-living. We are touched by God's grace,
and we come to Him, expressing our gratitude, with this simple phrase: thank
you. Thank you, Lord, for every person you have brought to and everything
you have done in our lives.
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