In the video above a mother goes back to find the people that helped keep her son alive after a horrific accident. There were many people involved in saving her son. She contacts various different people in her quest to visit the saviors and thank them. It is a touching story.
If you are like me, you ask God to help you in various ways including work, faith, trust, health, school, relationships, bad habits, etc. etc. etc. When things get taken care of what do we do? Do we feel proud of ourselves and move on or do we go back and find God to thank Him and praise Him? I had a moment where I did the former. I was training for months to regain strengths in my knees and to have courage to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test.
Before I took my record test (the one that counts) I took a diagnostic test. After months of failures and disappointments not only in regard to this test, but in life in general, I finally passed. I was on top of the world, but I was cursing in excitement and patting myself on the back. When I saw my superior after washing up and changing I shared this excitement with him. Being a good man of faith, he admonished me because I did not praise God. He heard my cursing and pride. He correctly called me out. After I passed the record test I remembered this and I gave praise to God instead of simply carrying on with pride.
Let's dive into the reading. What would immediately jump out to Luke's audience is the fact that the men had leprosy, which is an infectious disease that can disfigure people. Today it is treatable, but in the time of Christ it was not. Due to the infectious nature of this disease, people that had leprosy were considered unclean and thus cast out of the community. They lived on the outskirts and were completely cut off from society. This is where the term Leper Colony comes from, since they had to form their own communities due to being outcasts. Long story short, leprosy was a death sentence.
Christ being the Great Healer tells them to present themselves to the priests. This was a requirement to be considered clean; the priests had to make it official. Ten men who essentially had a death sentence were healed and freed from this sentence. How awesome a work of Christ! However, only one out of ten comes back to thank him. This one man was a Samaritan.
The fact that a Samaritan returned to praise God versus a Hebrew man would have immediately stirred Luke's audience again. Samaritans were seen as archenemies of the Ancient Hebrews, which is why they are used to emphasize Christ's parables. The logic in a sense is, "even a Samaritan did it!" So, when reading this think of your archenemy (and pray for them) and use the logic used in the Gospels. When God does something for you think of your archenemy praising and thanking God while you simply go on ungrateful. If you have a well formed conscience, you will obviously not want to let your archenemy be a better person than you!
So, let's challenge ourselves to retire at night thanking God for the day that we had, even if it was a difficult one. A simple prayer of thanksgiving while examining your day will help increase our humility and overall virtue. Amen!
Pax
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Gospel reading for 15 NOV: Luke 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."
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Laudamus te! Credo Domine!
