Twenty-Eighth Sunday, Year C (2010)
Homily; Fr. Mark
Eucharist, the Greek word meaning thanksgiving, is the one word that sums up and expresses clearly both our vocation to be Christians and the spirit in which we should worship in our liturgy. The readings we have in today’s Mass are all about thanksgiving.
The grounds for thanksgiving are many. The healing of Naaman is one example. And in the gospel we see another when Jesus cured the ten lepers who went to him in their need.
In the Second Book of Kings from which the first reading is taken, we know Naaman was a reluctant believer in the word of Elisha to go and bathe seven times in the Jordan. But he did in the end and was miraculously healed. The account of the ten lepers who pleaded with Jesus gives much the same message: believe and be cured, become changed.
Naaman’s response was his gratitude to God. The Samaritan’s reaction was the same. From Jesus’ own words we know the other nine lepers were also cured but did not return to give thanks. There is something strange in our human nature that finds it difficult to say Thank You.
There are of course lots of reasons why this may be. Often we can be reluctance to accept that we need others, even our need of God, may it be said. This may be because we think we don’t need help, or that we think we can do things better ourselves, thank you very much. We want to be our own person. That’s all right as far as it goes, but that attitude can lead us to a state when we almost want to save ourselves. There is no real place for God in a life lived like that. That is a house that will collapse under the weight of its own pride. The lives that God wants us to have are happier places than any of these pale imitations of them.
Human beings have an inner need for society in one form or another. They thrive on it. We are meant to relate to one another, to build up families, to create communities, small and large. Even hermits, strangely enough, are part of the fabric of the church world-wide. They give their lives to God alone but in their prayer they care for the world.
God reveals himself in the tender concern and thoughtfulness that people give to each other. How often do we judge others before we get to know them? And then we are surprised when we see what gifts of understanding and compassion they have to offer. For our part, it takes courage and a certain trust to reveal our vulnerability to others. But that itself in itself is character-building. It prepares us, too, to trust God more and to be more thankful.
There is a certain logic about the sequence of events described in today’s readings. Our love and belief in God is not for ourselves alone. In the earlier parts of the bible gods were believed to be tied to a particular place and people. That explains why Naaman wanted to take earth back from the Holy Land so that he could worship the God of Israel in Syria his own homeland. However, during their exile from the Holy Land the Israelites were shown that their God was not bound to the land, the earth of their forbears, but went wherever they went. God has come to be seen as God of all the earth. That surely is a reason for us to give thanks.
The psalms are full of the glory of the world in its every manifestation and of thanksgiving to God who created the earth and all that is in it. Outside of the psalms the word Thanksgiving is rarely to be found in the old dispensation. But it is used very much in the New Testament, especially in the writings of St Paul and the gospels. It isn’t surprising then that the word Eucharist lies at the heart of Christian spirituality.
When we see what we have been given and what we have become, we can truly thank God. God is the source of what and who we are.
Grateful people are happy people. They are not narrow-minded in their thoughts about others. They are not offhand in the way they treat them. Those who have genuine gratitude in their hearts wish the same for others as much as for themselves. In such as these we see the kingdom of God.
[Cf Scripture in Church, No.160, Oct –Dec 2010, 32-4 Terence Crotty, OP.]
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