The word "leprosy" terrified people in the time of Jesus. It is hard for us to imagine the many thousands of people who suffered from various skin diseases in Judea back then. Even today, the word leprosy strikes as much fear in us as does the word "anthrax" or "cancer".
In our readings for today are two instances of cures of this horrible and dreaded disease. In our first reading we hear of the gratitude of Naaman the Syrian who expresses his gratitude to the God of Israel. In the Gospel, we have the cure of ten lepers, one of them a Samaritan. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other with a passion, but evidently this illness united these ten hapless and lonely individuals. It is said that in a flood, animals who are natural enemies of each other will stand side by side on dry ground as the water level rises. Crises makes them allies. The same thing happened with these Jewish people with the Samaritan.
All ten were cured by Jesus. But only one of them, the Samaritan, was cured in his soul because of the gift of healing and his gratitude for it brought him to Jesus to express thanks. He then came to know Jesus not only as a healer but as Savior.
There's a lot of talk these days about rights and entitlements. Maybe because of the wealth and prosperity of the past century, we feel that we have a right to all kinds of things. We all feel that we deserve to be happy or to have a long life! Or to be healthy or to have peace! Are these rights or blessings?
We can easily lose a sense of gratitude for the blessings we have been given. We come to church with our needs and burdens, as we should, but we forget to thank the Lord for the blessings we have received in our life. Do we notice the blessings of God in our everyday lives?
Did we show gratitude to our parents who gave us life, food, shelter, clothing and education, and, maybe, by their love, gave us a sense of self-worth. Do we show gratitude to those friends in our lives for their friendship and support in good times and bad times? Are we grateful for those people who helped us throughout our lives in school or in our jobs or careers? Do we show gratitude to God for our intelligence or for the gift of sight, hearing or health that He blessed us with?
Another thing we should be grateful to God for is for the gift of our Catholic Faith! There are thousands of people entering the Catholic Church each year through the religious educations classes all throughout the United States. What is it about the Catholic Church that is attracting them to it? Do we take our Catholic Faith for granted?
There are converts who are attracted to the beautiful gift of the sacrament of confession where they can receive the gift of God's forgiveness . Others speak of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament in every Catholic Church. Others see that the Church is universal. They can see that no matter where they go in the world, there is a Catholic Community that shares their gift of faith, ancient and powerful. Others may see that we take human dignity seriously and knows that with God's grace we can live in the image and likeness of God. By God's grace, we can be faithful to our promises, we can speak and live in the truth, we can exercise self-control, and we can respect human life from the first moment of conception to natural death.
When coming to Mass we should bring not only our petitions and concerns to God, but we should bring our gratitude for the good things the Lord God has given us in our lives. The prayer of gratitude, of thanksgiving, widens our vision to see God in everyday life. One of my favorite saints, St. Theresa of Avila, once wisely said somewhere that the memory of a favor received can bring a soul more readily to God than many sermons on hell. Whatever else we do at Mass, let us never forget to give thanks to the Lord. It is good even to list blessings in our life because we tend to forget how many they are.
Ultimately, the prayer of thanksgiving doesn't benefit God, it benefits us!
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