THE WORD
Wis 6: 1–11 / Lk 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.”
IN OTHER WORDS
A legend goes that two angels were once sent down from heaven, each with a basket. They went from place to place visiting people in different situations in life.
Then at length they came flying back with their loads. The basket borne by one angel was laden, but that of the other was very light, hardly worthwhile. “What do you have in your basket?” asked one. “I was sent to collect the prayers of all the people who said, ‘I want this and that’ and ‘Please give me this or that’,” answered the angel who was carrying the heavy load. “And what have you in yours?” “Oh!” replied the other angel, sadly, “I have been sent to collect the ‘Thank yous’ from all the people to whom the great God has sent blessings. But see how few have remembered to give thanks to Him.”
Have you thanked God today? Jesus in today’s Gospel expressed disgust that only one of the ten lepers, a Samaritan at that, has remembered to thank God. “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Every moment of our life we receive graces from God and from the people around us. In fact, all that we have and are come from God. We cannot even name something which we haven’t receive from Him. But do we acknowledge this? Honestly, most of the time we are only good in asking God to do this or that for us. And when He has granted us our petitions we hardly remember to thank Him.
In the celebration of the Eucharist, we are not the ones doing a favor to God. It is God doing us a favor. We are the ones receiving His words of life and His body and blood.
May we not forget to really express our gratitude to God. Life is much easier if we are full of gratitude to Him. Let us thank Him not only in words but in action.
- Gerry E. Paat, SVD (SVD Postulancy, Tagaytay City)
The Word in other words 2015
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
