Sunday Mass Homilies

28th Sunday in OT (Year C) - Lectionary #144 Fr. Charles Deering

 How much do we owe God? The only appropriate answer to this question is, of course, everything! There isn’t a single thing we own that wasn’t given to us as a gift, including our very existence. Each breath we take…every minute we persist…all granted to us by God. Given that this is an absolute truth, how often do we thank our Father for all his generosity? One of the fundamental characteristics of a Christian is gratitude…is this a virtue that we exemplify? Would those around us say that we’re thankful people…that we’re grateful for all we’ve been given? Gratitude is undoubtedly the central theme of our readings today. Most of us have heard our Gospel story a hundred times. We all would like to imagine ourselves to be the one healed leper who would return, given the circumstances…would this really be the case? If we take a careful look at the rest of our scripture today, we may have to admit that we’re probably not the paragons of gratitude we imagine ourselves to be. Most of us are very quick to express our gratitude to God for the good things of life - this is perfectly natural. Of course we’re happy when things go our way, and part of that happiness is a general desire to express our thanks; but are we just as fast to offer thanksgiving for the difficulties we encounter? How likely are we to end a particularly trying day with a prayer of gratitude to God for allowing us to encounter those problems? Initially, this kind of gratitude sounds crazy to us…why would we ever be grateful for problems, challenges, obstacles, and difficulties? It defies logic, right!? Well, as it turns out, if we just scrape the surface of most of the things that you and I would consider major catastrophes in our modern life, we are likely to find a heap of rich blessings that we mostly take for granted. There are many potential examples that can be given to illustrate this point, but I like one in particular, because I think it’s something we can all relate to, and that is traffic. When we fail to make it to some scheduled event in time due to a bit of heavy traffic, we’re far more likely to complain about the lost time, or the missed opportunity, or the frustration of an unrealized plan than we are to thank God for, say, the comfortable vehicle we were traveling in, or the extra time we had for conversation with our loved ones, or maybe the beauty of the day around us, or the fact that we were spared from an accident on the road. This example is useful because it’s something most of us know well; however, it is not meant to trivialize some of the difficulties we encounter in our lives. We all understand that the common annoyances of our everyday lives pale in comparison to some of the more terrifying and cataclysmic events that we might suffer; but even in these moments, we’re called to give thanks to God. Remember our Gospel Acclamation; “In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” If we live with these words as a guiding principle, then even the most devastating news can be for us a reason to offer praise to God. St. Paul says to Timothy in our second reading; “Beloved: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: such is my gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.” St. Paul, a victim for the sake of the Gospel, clung to that very Gospel in all the horrendous circumstances of his imprisonment, and was thus able to give thanks to God even while he was suffering. This same power is ours when we focus on the reality of the life to come. No misfortune that might befall us here in time can compare with the joy that is ours if we recognize that we are destined for an eternal paradise prepared for us from the foundations of the world by our Heavenly Father, who desires nothing more than to bring us home where He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. If this isn’t a reason to go through life with a deep and abiding sense of gratitude, then I don’t know what is! Our sense of thankfulness should be so robust that it spills over into our interactions with one another. Gratitude most properly belongs to God first, but we would also do well to recognize that our brothers and sisters bless us in many ways as well. If we spend our lives looking for all the opportunities we have to be grateful - and capitalizing on those opportunities - then we will certainly find that we have little time or desire to complain. It isn’t so much that happy people are grateful, but rather that grateful people are happy.  Let us pray today for the gift of a grateful heart. Let us pray for the wisdom to see our lives for what they really are - pure gift. We are owed nothing, and yet we have been given everything. May our active thanksgiving be an example to those around us who struggle to see their own gifts, so that they too may come to know the generosity and love of their Heavenly Father. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!