To Live Gratitude Is to Touch Heaven

10-12-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Albert

Today's Gospel story tells us of a single non-Jewish leper who returned to thank Jesus for healing him, while the other nine now healed Jewish lepers went their way. Perhaps they were under the false impression that healing was their right as God's chosen people, so hurried off to obtain health certificates from the priests. ''Where are the other nine? Jesus asked of the returned Samaritan and the crowd.

This incident recounting the thankfulness of the cleansed Samaritan leper is narrated only in Luke's Gospel and provides an instance of Jesus holding up a non-Jew as an example of goodness and Faith, pleasing to God to his Jewish Contemporaries. Moreover, it is the Faith in Jesus manifested by the foreigner that has brought him salvation. Here Samaritan is presented as the model of Faith and gratitude. The Samaritan knew that he had been in the right place at the right time, and that such an opportunity might never occur again for him. The Samaritan had not earned the kindness of God. he had simply asked for it. and it was freely given. a Samaritan , having accepted God's grace, his natural response was to give thanks and praise.

The lepers came to Jesus with desperate longing and the merciful Lord cured them. But nine of them never came back to give thanks. The Samaritan looked beyond the gift of healing to its Giver and responded appropriately. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God laments over man's ingratitude. Hence the Word of God invites us to be thankful. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus raised his eyes and said, '' Father, I thank you for hearing me''. St. Paul advises us '' Give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. The only prayer we need to say in our lifetime is ''Thank You,''

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. Often we are ungrateful to God. Although we receive so much from Him, we often take everything as our due, without recognizing and appreciating that everything we have or receive is His free gift. We allow the negatives of our lives to hide the blessings He is giving us, minor negatives like some health problems, financial worries, conflicts with a neighbor, or spouse. Besides, we are often thankful only when we compare ourselves with less fortunate people. In times of need, we pray with desperate intensity, but as time passes, we forget God.

God gave us His only-begotten Son, but we seldom give Him a word of thanks. Often we are ungrateful to our parents and consider them a nuisance, although we were dependent in the past on them for literally everything. Hence, in the future, let us be filled with daily thanksgiving to God and to others for the countless gifts we have received. Let us show our gratitude to our forgiving, loving God and by forgiving and loving others and by radiating His love, mercy and compassion.