Give Thanks to God

Give Thanks to God

November 15, 2012

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise.  They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone.  For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.  Titus 3:1-3

"Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"  Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."  Luke 17:17-19

Piety

There sits Simon, so foolishly wise proudly he's tending his nets.
Then Jesus calls, and the boats drift away all that he owns he forgets

More than the nets he abandoned that day, he found that his pride was soon drifting away.
It's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind. 

  -- Michael Card, Lyrics from "The Things We Leave Behind"

Study

The Lord is my shepherd.  There is nothing other than the Lord that I shall want.  But I do, though.  Paul reminds Titus of our sinful nature and our desire to be close to the Lord fighting over our disposition.  We have the same tug-of-war.  There are other "things" we are tempted with daily that try to draw us further away from Jesus.  As we get closer to the holiday season, our mailboxes -- virtual and actual -- are crammed full of catalogs of gifts to buy for others.  Yet my brother's plight in New Jersey coping with the flooded basement and garages reminds us that all of this is just stuff that could float away like Peter's boats.

Action

The ten lepers story has a fond place in my heart.  It was the Gospel reading on the Sunday of my Cursillo Weekend 11 years ago.  The one leper was truly thankful for his encounter with Christ. Pray not only for such "thanks-giving" in your relationship with Jesus and your neighbors, but also for the ability to pass that spirit of Thanksgiving along to others not only next Thursday but every Thursday and every other day of the year.