Cycle C - Year I:  

13 October 2019: Twenty-eight Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        2 Kings 5:14-17

Second Reading:   2 Timothy 2:8-13

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 17:11-19

"Thank You, Lord Jesus!"

The wise tells us that a good deed is never paid back, but only appreciated with gratitude; and better still passed on to others in need.

This Sunday's Gospel presents to us a case of gratitude, and also the lack of it.  St. Luke gives an account of the cure of ten lepers, of whom only one came back to thank Jesus for the healing. 

Now in biblical times  lepers were regarded the outcasts of society.  A person with leprosy has open and smelly sores and deformities in one's nose, fingers, and toes.  By Moses Law, lepers had to live apart from the rest of the community (Numbers 5:2-3), and were required to shout a warning to others when they were nearby (Leviticus 13:45-46).

The gist of the Gospel story: Our Lord Jesus Christ was on the way to Jerusalem passing through Samaria and Galilee. He met ten lepers who begged Him to cure them of their leprosy.  As the story goes, our Lord Jesus heals or "cleanses" the ten lepers, but only one of them came back to thank Him; and he was a Samaritan.  Take note that Samaritans were considered the outcasts of society in their time.  But the grateful Samaritan in the story glorified God with a loud cry and he realized the greatness of the gift he has been given and the goodness of the One who gave it, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Considering the great gift of healing for the ten lepers, it is mystifying that only one of them came back to say "thank you" to Jesus.  And the Gospel does not tell us why.  But it should be enough that we realize there's something wrong with the lack of gratitude of the others.  So Jesus wondered, "Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" (Luke 17:17-18)

Now it is the same message from our Lord to us today, that we should always give thanks for our many material blessings, like family, friends, homes, food on our table, a good job, being healthy, and many more.  Our gratefulness must also include the many kindness we receive from others as well by way of such little gestures as a "thank you" note or phone calls, or text are important.  Because we must always acknowledge when we have been blessed with precious gifts at home or at work.

And we need to go a little deeper than being grateful for our material blessings.  By faith we know that once we were dead in sin, but now we live in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gift of baptism, when we died and rose with Christ.  Our gratitude then is what makes us see with clarity with the eyes of faith.

In sum, God makes amazing miracles in our lives every single day, some are spectacular perhaps, and others are so small they can be easily missed and overlooked if we weren't paying attention.  So let our eyes be opened to God's great works in our daily lives.  So that we do not just simply go about our day but rather stop whatever we are doing to give our Lord Jesus Christ all praise and glory for His many gifts and blessings.  And participating in the Eucharist at Holy Mass is our way of "glorifying God in a loud voice" for His most wondrous gift of life.

The Church also celebrates the Indigenous Peoples' Sunday and Extreme Poverty Day.  Let us support with prayers their struggle to preserve their beautiful cultural traits and their rights, and help the poorest of the poor among us. 

So let us pray:  Lord, teach us to be grateful always for the gift of life and the many blessings, great and small, that come with it everyday. Amen.

A blessed Sunday to us all.  And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!