06-Oct-2016 Dear Friend, We love to get things and we want God to give us what we ask as soon as possible. But often, after we have received what we wanted, we are so taken up with the gift that we forget the giver. We ourselves know how hurt we feel when people are not grateful for what we have done for them. Are we grateful to God for his countless gifts? Have a thankful weekend counting our daily blessings. -Fr. Jude Sun Ref. XXVIII Sunday: ‘Taking God for granted, one returned to thank God!’ 9-Oct-20162 Kings 5: 14-17; 2 Tim. 2: 8-13; Luke 17: 11-19;
The first reading speaks of the healing of Naaman the leper by the prophet Elisha and his deep gratitude that he shows to the prophet for the healing he has experienced. He wishes to express his gratitude tangibly by offering a gift to the prophet, and when the prophet refuses the gift he is ready to show his thanks by carrying back soil on which to erect an altar to the true God. What is remarkable is that Naaman is a foreigner, a pagan who acknowledges the true God, while the Israelites refuse to acknowledge and worship their true God, but go after pagan Gods. Showing gratitudeByron Dell grew up on a farm in Nebraska. When he was eight years old he had a pony named Frisky. Sometimes the pony lived up to its name. One morning when Byron was getting the cows, Frisky bolted at breakneck speed. Byron held on for dear life, and emerged unhurt. That night Byron’s father accompanied him upstairs to bed and asked his son to kneel with him and thank God that he was not hurt. There, besides Byron’s bed, the father prayed out aloud a spontaneous prayer of thanksgiving to God. That incident happened 55 years ago, but Byron never forgot it. It moved him deeply and gave him a greater appreciation of his father. Above all, it taught him to be grateful and ever since he has made gratitude to God a regular part of his life.Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' Today’s Gospel narrates the incident of the ten lepers who came to Jesus to be cured of their leprosy. Their request is simple and to the point: “Jesus master, have pity on us!” The lepers did not give Jesus detailed instructions about what they needed. They did not tell Jesus that their wives and children would be uncared for unless he healed them. Nor did they make solemn promises about what they would do if he cured them. They did not press him to heal them within a certain deadline. As a matter of fact they didn’t ask him to cure them! They prayed the near perfect prayer of petition. They left their petition open-ended. “Have pity on us!” They did not spell out the pity that would be acceptable to them. They left that to the Saviour. We on the other hand are tempted to tell Jesus how our struggles should turn out, what the acceptable solution would be, we usually tend to put the specific result within our petition. That does not give the Lord much of a choice! It takes great faith to pray open-endedly. Let God be God in our lives! The last part of the gospel reminds us that though all ten lepers were cleansed and healed, only one came back, a foreigner, to thank Jesus for the healing. That man underwent the process of conversion necessary for all of us –realizing that we are nothing, acknowledging God and his gifts, being aware that we need God and desiring to turn to Him and serve Him with all our heart. Expression of thanks to God is an integral part of gratitude. Perfect PrayerThey asked the abbot Macarius, “How ought we to pray?” and the old man said, “There is no need of much speaking in prayer, but often stretch out thy hands and say, “Lord, as Thou wilt and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me.” But if there is war in your soul, add, “Help me.” And because he knoweth what we have need of, he showeth us his mercy.” Spin carefully, Spin prayerfully, leaving the thread to God.Anonymous Annual Thanksgiving LetterIn 1939, Sgt. Robert MacCormack saved the life of his commanding officer, Mayor Harry Parkin, on a battle field in France. He has just received his thirty-fifth annual letter of thanks from Parkin, now an estate agent in Richmond, Yorkshire. “Dear Bob,” Parkin wrote, “I want to thank you for the thirty five years of my life which ordinarily I would not have had were it not for you. I am grateful to you.” -Yes, gratitude is the memory of the heart. We are often accustomed to turn to God in trouble and forget him when things go well. Day after day we experience God’s blessings and care, but are we grateful to him?Antony Kolencherry in ‘Living the Word’ Truly gratefulTwo men were walking through a field when they suddenly saw an angry bull charging at them. Immediately they began to run to the fence. Soon it became clear that they were not going to make it. So one man shouted to the other and said, “We are gone. Nothing is going to save us. Say a prayer quick.” The other shouted back. “I have never prayed in my life. And I don’t have a prayer for this occasion”.“Never mind, any prayer will do.” “Well”, said the second one, “I will say the prayer I remember my father used to say before meals: ‘For what we are about to receive, O Lord, make us truly grateful’ ”John Rose in ‘John’s Sunday Homilies’ Expressing Our GratitudeIn 1976 Louise Fletcher was awarded an Oscar for best actress for her role as Nurse Ratched in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She had given up acting for eleven years to raise her children before she won that role after five big-name actresses had turned it down. In accepting her Academy Award, Louise Fletcher did a very dramatic thing. With her voice breaking with emotion she faced a national television audience and said: “For my mother and my father, I want to say thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true.” Louise Fletcher delivered the message in sign language at the same time, because both of her parents are deaf mutes and were watching from their home in Alabama.Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ Best of GiftsThere is a huge fortress on a hill overlooking the town of Weinsberg in Germany. One day, far back in feudal times, the fortress was surrounded by the enemy. The commander of the enemy troops agreed to let all women and children leave the fortress. He also agreed to allow each woman take one valuable possession with her. Imagine the amazement and frustration of the commander when he saw each woman leave the fortress with her husband on her back! Charity begins at home. The hardest place to practice the gospel is at home in my own house.Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel truth!’ Thank You!The English writer Somerset Maughan had a problem. He had earned a good sum of money from his Spanish royalties but the law forbade him to take any of the money out of the country. Maughan decided to use the money to pay for a luxury holiday. He chose one of the best hotels and dined extravagantly every evening. Nothing was too costly. When he felt satisfied that he had spent most of the money that was due to him, he told the manager that he would be leaving the following day. He asked for the bill. Instead of going off to get the bill, the manager stood where he was and beamed at his distinguished guest. Maughan was confused. The manager said to him: “It has been an honour having you in our hotel. You have brought much publicity to us while you have been here. We would like to show our gratitude. Therefore, there is no bill.”Denis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Word’ May we express our gratitude by giving thanks to God in every situation! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
