“May We Always Be Grateful” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“May We Always Be Grateful” by Colleen O’Sullivan 

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop

But when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7) 

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1b)

(The lepers) stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going, they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. (Luke 17:12b-16) 

Piety

Lord, you are my Shepherd; there is nothing more I could ever want. (from Psalm 23)

Study   

As I read and prayed with today’s Gospel, I thought of the state of the world in which we are living. As of yesterday, more than 1.26 million people around the world have died from Covid-19. I idly wondered how far the line would stretch if we could line up that many individuals, side-by-side, holding hands. Just trying to picture it was mind-boggling. All those ICU patients who died with no family beside them to say a loving goodbye. All those loved ones gone from this earth, now rest in the arms of Jesus. All those families left empty and bereft, the rest of us trying to stay well or be kept well by our respective governments. 

If we are serious about avoiding Covid-19, we wear masks outside of our homes. We maintain “social distance.” We use lots of foaming soap and hand sanitizer. We Zoom rather than get together in person. For many of us, it has added up to a great sense of isolation and loneliness. Zoom, incredible as it is, doesn’t satisfy our need and desire for human contact. I have hope that somebody will find an effective vaccine. I hope that we will eventually feel free to hug and kiss our beloved family members and celebrate holidays and birthdays all together.

But what hope did the lepers in the reading from Luke have? There certainly wasn’t about to be a vaccine for them. There was no hope that they would ever be better. They social distanced out of necessity because towns and villages banned lepers from contact with family and friends. They existed on the margins of society. 

So, how wonderful it must have been when the Healer began to visit their villages, the only hope they had ever had. When Jesus was in their vicinity, the ten lepers cried out to him. Please help us! We are the walking dead! We beg you to heal us! Jesus had compassion for them and healed them. No longer would they be shunned. They could return to their homes, their occupations, their families. They could live again!

So, why did only one of the ten, and a Samaritan at that, turn back to thank Jesus? Probably the other nine were like most of the rest of us. We don’t always walk around overflowing with gratitude, although we have much for which to be thankful. (Ponder the words in the first Scripture reading. Our God has redeemed us out of love and mercy and offers us the gift of eternal life.) But we don’t often wake up in the morning full of thanksgiving for another day, for the gift of life, for the blessing of redemption. We take it for granted. Or we are disgruntled with God because God’s gifts didn’t come packaged as we would have liked them.

Action

Having a three-year-old in the family has made me wonder how many of us learn to be thankful for our blessings. Yes, he says thank you for gifts or when you hand over the cup of milk he has requested or buy a new book to read to him over and over. He could memorize a blessing at this point in his life, but I like seeing him thinking about this rather than parroting words we teach him. So, at most meals, we each say something we’re grateful for and help him think through his day, activity-by-activity, and person-by-person with whom he’s interacted.

Hopefully, this is something all of us do as adults in prayer, as well. If not, take time every single day to look over where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and with whom you’ve done it. I guarantee that even if you’re having a bad day, you can be thankful for some things – even if they are tiny. Doing that act of thanksgiving every day will slowly transform you into a grateful person, one who sees himself or herself as blessed, and having something to share with others. 

Legend has it that St. Martin of Tours, whom we remember today, was so full of gratitude for his blessings and so full of compassion for the poor that he used his sword to cut his cloak in half and gave half to a beggar. I realize how blessed I am, and I can only hope to be as generous.

                                                Thank you!

November 11, 2020