WEDNESDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Ti 3: 1-7 Ps 23: 1-6 Lk 17: 11-19
A GRATEFUL HEART IS MOST PLEASING TO GOD
“He threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him”. The Gospel today throws light on three elements that are most pleasing to God, the very qualities displayed in the leper who returned to give thanks. They are humility, gratitude and faith. Did it really matter that the nine lepers went on their way merrily, but just one returned to give thanks? It mattered to Jesus. He felt a deep concern for those nine souls because they were ungrateful. We have little understanding today of what it meant to be a leper at the time of Jesus. Worse than the disease was the leper’s fate; cut off from family, forced to live a wretched life alone, begging for food.
The law stated that Lepers shall dwell apart making their abode outside the camp. They were the living dead and leprosy was regarded more with terror than pity. But, Jesus was always breaking these ancient taboos. Often we read of Him not only speaking to lepers but reaching out to touch them. He broke all kinds of laws; always His first concern was not law, but people, not religion but life.
Tolerated only by the nine others with whom he shared this terrible disease, the Samaritan alone returns to give thanks. Ten said please and only one said thank you. He throws himself at the feet of Jesus in gratitude. “There is a touch of sadness in the words of Jesus, were not all ten made clean? Where are the other nine?” This is the only place in the Gospels that we find Jesus insisting of the duty of gratitude. Jesus invites us to ask ourselves two things. First, to which group do we belong? Do we belong to those who are grateful like the Samaritan? Or, do we belong to those who are ungrateful like the other nine lepers who were cured? Perhaps, we all need to say from time to time, “O God, You have given us so much, give us one more thing, a grateful heart.”
Response: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
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