Healing: gratitude and faith
Of course it is natural that we seem to be much more conscious of death the older we get. Publisher/editor and Pulitzer author Norman Cousins wrote: Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. In a sense our gospel for this Sunday relates a way of being the living dead. At least that is what I imagine persons living with leprosy must have felt during the days of Jesus. Imagine the suffering due to expulsion from home and community. How painful daily life must have been not only physically, but spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and socially. Having to wear bells so that others knew when they were approaching, living in remote areas away from all people; except those who also suffered from leprosy, and never being touched by family they missed. These were just some of the awful punishments that accompanied the dreaded disease with no known cure until 1900 years later.
In the days of Jesus, Leprosy was considered a punishment by God for the sins of a person or their family. So lepers were both religious and social outcasts. The visible marks of their disease was equivalent to a sign around their neck announcing, “I am a sinner.” If a member of the community came in contact with the leper, they too would be outcasts. Leprosy would be seen as a sign of sin in the community, a contagion passed from one generation to the next.
Jesus smashed that false understanding of God’s punishment with his cure of the 10. Among the cured was a Samaritan, people hated by the Jews. Imagine all the rejection the Samaritan leper would have felt. He would not only have been rejected by his own community, but even by other lepers that were Jewish. He not only had a dreaded disease, but he would have seen it as a punishment from God. He might have felt completely abandoned in his misery. So Jesus drives home another major view of God’s all-inclusive loving heart by healing the outsider. And the Samaritan, not the cured Jewish lepers, realizes that his healing was more profound than just a physical one—a spiritual healing takes place. It’s as if he woke up from a terrible nightmare and from then on, his life is completely different; not just because of his cure. Now he sees life in terms of seeing Jesus –God’s healing presence and comes back to glorify God and give thanks to Jesus. The man then hears the Lord proclaim to him: “stand up and go— your faith has saved you”. Gratitude and faith brought the man back to a deeper relationship with God in Jesus.
Jesus wants such a relationship with each of us not because He needs us, nor our gratitude, but because he knows how much better our lives become when we connect with him the author of all blessings.
When we acknowledge the gifts God has given us, we remember who we are, the beloved of God. While life may toss us about from time/time, nonetheless we can see that we also have received many blessings in our journey. And we know that blessings are not due to our own efforts, plans and achievements. One reason, we return to Jesus at church is to give thanks for our blessings.
Today’s readings remind us that life itself is a gift from God. This special gift is sacred in all aspects. When we can see life as holy we want to help others do the same. The month of October is designated as Respect Life month. A reminder that we are not the sole possessors of life, God is. We must protect the holiness of life from conception in the womb to childhood, teen years, and young adult time, single or married life and into our senior years. We can easily take for granted the precious gift of life and the beauty of creation that surrounds us and fail to be thankful. I think original sin was ingratitude.
Thankfulness leads us to be thoughtful stewards for all the abundantly beautiful life that surrounds us, the people in our families, workplace, school, on the streets, across national boundaries, the beauty and bounty of this sacred planet. Sometimes it takes the loss of such blessings—or the threat of loss—that shakes us into an awareness of our sacred gifts from God. Who of us doesn’t need to give more thanks not only to God, but to the people in our lives?
I give thanks throughout the day for all of you—it begins before the Blessed Sacrament and I tell you this not to brag, but to let you know how sacred you are. I am humbled by the sharing you do with me about your families, your loved ones, your trials, joys, faith crisis, and more. Humbled because as I tell God so often you are such good people, better than me and that humbles me. You have more stress than a priest with your family responsibilities, duties, financial obligations, and you do so, for the most part, in such a loving and compassionate way. When I am blessed to have a meal in your homes, hear your stories in counseling, or Confession, and all the many ways you share your sacred lives, you bless me. And I see you strive to live good lives as you bless God, your families, community and church. Thank you.
We gather in community to praise and give thanks, and we are blessed once again by the Lord, healed in his forgiveness and love for us. He tells us to wake up, and sends us back to where we live and share our blessings; offering forgiveness and healing and love, and sharing the gifts of our lives for the good of others. Blessed Thanks!