By Colleen O’Sullivan
When
Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.” God further said to Abraham; “As for your
wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son
by her. Him also will I bless; he shall
give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him.” Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he
said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?” Then Abraham said to God, “Let but Ishmael
live on by your favor!” (Genesis 17:1,
15-18)
When
Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And then a leper approached, did him homage,
and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand, touched him, and
said, “I will do it. Be made
clean.” His leprosy was cleansed
immediately. (Matthew 8:1-3)
Piety
“Although others may think otherwise, whenever I think of the Divine
Goodness, it seems to me that ingratitude
is the most abominable of sins – that any creature capable of enjoying His
divine and everlasting glory should detest it in the sight of our Creator and
Lord. After all, it is a forgetting of
the graces, the benefits, and the blessings received. As such it is the cause, the beginning, the
origin of all sins and every misfortune.”
(from Spiritual
Wisdom in the Letters of Ignatius Loyola)
Study
Picture
someone you love very much or someone whom you care for very deeply. Imagine that you want to give that person a
gift. Not the ordinary, expected
Christmas or birthday present. Something
very special, something you think will delight him or will let her know how
much you think of her. You spend a great
deal of time coming up with just the right thing. And then you present the gift. The person opens it, and instead of “oohing”
and “aahing,” they begin to laugh at what you offered and tell you what they
would rather have had instead.
I’d be so
disappointed and hurt if that happened.
I don’t know what your mothers told you about receiving gifts, but my
mother always said to be grateful that someone thought enough of you to give
you something. Don’t focus on the gift
itself and whether or not it’s what you would have picked out.
Somebody
should have mentioned that to Abraham.
Here’s the Almighty God making a covenant with him. God’s going to give Abraham a son by his
childless wife, a son whose descendants will give rise to nations and
rulers. Is Abraham grateful? Is he even the tiniest bit impressed? No. He makes
a show of prostrating himself, all the while laughing at how ridiculous God sounds. He and Sarah are old; they’ll never have a
child now. He shows absolutely no trust
in God’s ability to change his life.
Abraham then digs himself a little deeper. Not only does he not say thank you, he tells
God what he’d rather have – something for Ishmael, his son by his wife’s
servant.
In today’s
Gospel reading, we meet just the opposite type of person. He isn’t filled with self-importance. He’s a leper, the scum of society. In fact, being a leper means he has to exist
outside of society. He’s allowed contact
with no one but other lepers. His
existence is a tenuous and lonely one.
But he sees power in Jesus. And
he tells the Lord that he knows Jesus can heal him, if Jesus desires to. He has faith.
And Jesus touches him and restores him to wholeness. We don’t know if he thanked Jesus in so many
words, but what a contrast to Abraham in our first reading! This leper made no demands, simply trusted
that Jesus could cure him if Jesus wanted to.
Action
The best
way I know to become more grateful is to review
your day with Jesus in prayer. Note
the good gifts over the past 24 hours, no matter how small. If you pray this way day after day, you will
find it increasingly difficult over time to see yourself as anything but a
loved and very blessed child of God.
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