October 10, 2010
Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant." "As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it," Elisha replied; and despite Naaman's urging, he still refused. 2 Kings 5:15-16
As he continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met (him). They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" Luke 17:11-13
Piety
The thrill of being thanked for something is always there. We are created in the image and likeness of God. What we know about God we eventually find to be part of the truth of who we are. What we know about the good of ourselves, we know about God. If we like to be thanked for the good we have done, it should not surprise anyone that God likes to be thanked for the good he does for us. Everything in creation is a hymn of praise and thanks to God. That goes without saying. The blessings of creation should never be taken for granted. We can learn to say thanks to God by living up to what we have been created for. We learned as children that we are created to praise reverence and serve the Lord our God with all that we are. Our thanks for life itself should be the continuous prayer of the human race. Our thanks for the good that is done for us opens the giver to give more. We can never be grateful enough for what God has done for us or will do for us if we but ask.
Study
The story of Naaman in the Old Testament and the story of the ten lepers in the New Testament accentuate the need to say thanks for the good done for us. How do we say thanks to the Lord for the forgiveness offered us by Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation? The leprosy of sin has been taken away how many times in our lives without our thanking God for what his son has done for us in dying on the cross to bring us reconciliation with his Father. We say thanks by not doing what we confessed again. But woe to us in our weak human flesh that pulls us away from the good we could do by our penance. Paul challenges us to bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen by God that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. If we are willing to die with Christ, we shall reign with him in heaven. Goodness is its own reward. I can love God all the more by the surrender of those things that I love in this world for the sake of the next world.
Action
The heart that was pierced on the Cross is the source of the Sacramental life of the Church. I need to allow myself to be soaked again and again the waters of Salvation that find expression in the Sacraments of the Church. I need to deny my appetites for the sake of others that I may be the source of the healing of Christ in others. I need to echo in my life the gratitude of Paul who rejoices that he can fill up what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ by what he does for the Body of Christ that is the church. In all circumstances, we need to give thanks to the Lord for the good he allows us to do in his name for each other. Each day we need to give thanks to the Lord for all the gifts we have received in the bounty of Christ’s love for us. We need to be the bounty of his love for each other. We can only keep in our spiritual journey what we give away for Christ. Our gratitude is the ultimate paradox of life because it frees us up to be Christ for each other in the gift we would make of our lives in his name.
