Saying “thank you” or expressing gratitude is an exercise that has been ingrained in most of us since our childhood. Our parents taught us that thankfulness must be cultivated. How many hundreds even thousands of times did they remind us “say thank you.” Nevertheless, despite early and intensive indoctrination, for many, thankfulness has not become a permanent habit.
In the gospel last Sunday, Jesus performs a miracle by curing ten lepers. As He entered their village they cried to Him, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” Leprosy, at that time, was the worst affliction a family could endure. Lepers were ostracized by the entire community and had to stay away from any contact with healthy individuals because the disease was very contagious. These lepers had to leave their wives, children, and friends. They had to leave the village and lead a life of loneliness, waiting for their death.
Being cured of leprosy would be the greatest gift a person could receive. One would think that every leper who had been cured would seek out Jesus and thank Him profusely. He had allowed them to return to their wives and their children. He made it possible for them to mingle with their friends and neighbors in the village. Not only that but he brought back their life and lengthened their life span by many years. And yet, only one man returned to thank Jesus. Jesus Himself was stunned. He said, “Ten lepers were cleansed were they not? Where are the other nine?”
What Jesus is saying is that if one receives any gift, he should at least say, “thanks!” But nine of the cured lepers did not even do that.
We have a lot of pains, sufferings, problems and struggles in our world today. Most often than not, we live our lives in misery and the pain of not realizing our dreams and ambitions. Most of the time we ask questions why we must undergo hardships in our life when we also tried our best to be faithful to God’s commandments. Indeed, why do good men have a taste of suffering and sometimes we face the irony that the bad ones getting all the goodness and riches in this world while the faithful ones have the gigantic share of suffering and pain. It must be the other way around, so we think.
These unfounded and inconceivable twist of fate make us think that God might be playing and making fun of his faithful ones. If this is a test of faith, my God, this is too much, and it is hard to bear.
My dear friends, we always have time to complain over this and that. We always find time to compare our misery over the luck that others enjoy for themselves. We always find time praying to the Lord to unload our burdens from us. But then, we never had the time to say “thank you” for the countless blessings that we receive each day of our life. We suffer, that is true, but it does not give us a reason to be ungrateful because that suffering is a blessing. Sometimes we forget that it is through pains, sufferings, and sacrifices that we become sharers of the Paschal Mystery of Christ. We always fail to see this truth in the events of our life because our eyes are clouded by envy, greed for wealth and power, and of our false idea that all forms of suffering are punishment from the God of love and mercy.
I had my share of misfortunes in this life. I was figured out in numerous road accidents, and I had not just a single broken bone because of those unlucky moments. I shed a million tears agonizing over the pain of cuts and bruises all over my body every time I kiss the rough surface of the streets because my motorbike had been filled up with too much alcohol that it can take. I felt so unlucky when I broke my left arm, and it seemed the end of the world for me. But when I looked around me at the hospital, there was a lot of people who were nursing not just a fractured arm but an amputated leg and arm, not just cuts and bruises but a defective vital organ which puts them really in touch with dying. There and then I had the reason to be grateful because of the realization that God never abandoned me, but he loves me so dearly after all those things that I went through. When I had a chance to stare on the crucifix, it was an awakening for me that all the pains and suffering that I went through is not even a pinch of the sufferings of Jesus, who even embraced the pain of dying out of his great love for us, sinners.
As Christians, he is the master, and we are the followers. He is an ever-faithful Lord and master, and we are a very lousy and unfaithful follower because we can only follow him in good times and in plenty. No one among us ever dares to follow him in his sufferings and death.
It is beneficial for us to make a habit of beginning each day thinking of someone to thank. If each day begins in an ambiance of thankfulness, much of the negativism, resentment and frustration that too often cloud our days may be stopped.
Gratefulness is an integral aspect of our faith journey. In the first reading, Naaman realized God had healed him; his gratitude prompted him to believe and was moved to profess his faith in worship. Similarly, the Samaritan leper, realizing he had been healed, acknowledges the divine power at work in Jesus and returned praising God.
Notice that Jesus does not praise him solely for his manners but for the thoughtfulness and thankfulness in his heart that evolved into faith. “Your faith has been your salvation.” Viewed in this way, therefore, gratitude can be understood as an energy to our faith response to God.
The more we think, the more we thank; and the more we thank, the more we move toward and embrace in faith, love and hope, our heavenly Father who is the source and the reason for our thinking, thanking, and believing.
As a Christian community, there is no better way in expressing our gratitude to God than celebrating the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, all our thinking, thanking, and believing unite in the saving action of Jesus; therein the leprosy of sin is forgiven; therein we are nurtured and made whole and holy so that we ourselves can become blessed, broken, and given as a bread for the life of the world. Therefore, every Eucharistic celebration is not a mandatory obligation we have to fulfill every Sunday but an act of thanksgiving to God by all of us as a Christian community.
“O God, you have given us so much. Give us one thing more … a grateful heart.” AMEN.