Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB - celebrant
Lk 17:11-19 2 Kg 5:14-17 2 Tm 2:8-13
focus: The complete cure for body and soul was experienced by the man who came back and gave thanks to God.
function: Gratitude can have a healing effect on us, too.
In East Africa, when you arrive after a journey, people will often say to you in Swahili, “Pole kwa safari,” “I am sorry that you had to travel.” This preserves the notion that traveling in the past was often strenuous and dangerous.
Here is a true story from our country, from the 19th century. Two settlers of the American West lived far away from each other but wanted to meet. They decided on a certain time and a certain place for getting together. Both had to ride on horseback for days in order to reach this location, partly through uninhabited territory. As they finally arrived at the destination and found each other, the one said: “Let me tell you what happened on my trip.
I almost wouldn’t have made it here. On the way suddenly my horse shied and threw me off. Thanks be to God, I was unharmed. Then, as I got up, I was seized with terror: For only a few steps ahead of me there was a deep gorge. I almost would have fallen into it. Immediately I knelt down and thanked God for rescuing me in such a wonderful way from certain death.”
The other man was silent for a moment. Then he responded, “Listening to you, I feel that I experienced God’s help at least as miraculously as you did. My horse didn’t throw me off on the way here. It carried me calmly and securely without any accident. I didn’t find myself in any major danger! If I only consider of what could have happened to me!
Both settlers were profoundly grateful that they had reached their destination safe and sound.
Gratitude is also the topic of today’s gospel and of today’s first reading. In the gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the place of his suffering and death. In a village, ten lepers approach him, or more exactly, people with a disease of their skin. In ancient Jewish society, such people were regarded as unclean and infectious. Therefore they were excluded from worship in the temple, and in general, from any human contact. They were social outcasts. It’s surprising that they entered the village. This was forbidden! Their desire to meet Jesus must have been very strong. They show their faith and trust in him also by addressing Him as “Master” and by asking him for help. Jesus sends them off to the priests. There they could, being cured, be accepted back into communion with other people. And, indeed, the men are being freed from their malady on the way.
It’s understandable that they then hasten to the temple in order to have their healing approved. Nevertheless, one man returns first to Jesus, the source of the cure; he praises and thanks God, and throws himself on the ground in veneration of Jesus. Jesus’ comment is: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” The man who returned and gave thanks experienced healing and salvation.
A parallel to this story is the healing of the Syrian Naaman by the prophet Elisha. Naaman returns, expressing his gratitude to Elisha, who in turn gives all the credit to God.
A person can easily imagine that those settlers in our story of the beginning were grateful for having arrived safely at their journey’s destination. Yes, traveling in those days was much riskier and more incalculable than today. Perhaps people experienced God’s providence more frequently and more intensely in those days because they were more regularly in touch with the dangers of traveling, with the forces of nature, with illnesses, etc.
At any rate, gratitude is also an important attitude for us. Our life’s journey has its risks and dangers, too. We also have reason to be grateful for so much protection and help that we’ve received on the way, and for so many other things in our life that we wouldn’t have been able to give to ourselves. It’s like the one leper and like Naaman, to give thanks. It is good, like Elisha, to give credit for what we’ve received to God.
Brothers, sisters! In the gospel, the complete cure for body and soul was experienced by the man who came back and gave thanks to God. Gratitude heals and saves us, too.
Benedictine Bro. David Steidl-Rast wrote a book titled, Gratefulness--the Heart of Prayer, in which he speaks about the connection between ‘thinking’ and ‘thanking.’ It has become a regular practice for me, in the evening, as part of my review of the day, to ask myself, What am I grateful for today? What am I most grateful for? Usually, a couple of things occur to me. I recall them all and give thanks to God. Sometimes a nice conversation comes to my mind, or the sunshine, the colorful leaves of fall, an insight that I gained while praying with Holy Scripture, the good taste of a meal … It’s necessary to think back to these gifts in order for me to be able to be thankful for them. Only in this way they truly become part of my life.
“We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day,” Henry Nouwen once wrote. Choosing to be grateful daily is choosing to become a joyful person. Gratefulness has its effect in our prayer and on our lives. It helps us to receive the healing, the wholeness, and the salvation that Jesus wants to bring also to us.
~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB