Walking with Jesus: Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, October 9, 2022

2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

As we grow in age and our health is as good as can be expected, we don’t usually look at our death … we try to avoid the subject and be involved with living. This is fine — it’s concentrating on taking each day as it comes; on living with its joys and sorrows. A worthwhile contemplative question to ask is, What will our legacy be? Legacy.com states, “For more than 20 years, Legacy has partnered with local newspapers and funeral homes to create a space where life stories live on.” How will the stories of our lives live on? How do we want to be remembered? Has my world been a better place because I was a part of it? I say it has: Every life impacts us in so many ways that we could never imagine. People have shaped us, formed us, led us, taught us ... to be people who recognize our God-given gifts to be the people God formed us to be. I am grateful.

Fr. Henri Nouwen writes a daily companion — Bread for the Journey, A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith — which energizes us on our journey to the Lord. His reflection for Jan. 12 brings out The Spiritual Work of Gratitude. He writes:

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives — the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections — that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our being as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Today's readings continue this journey into the gratitude in our lives.

Naaman, a leper, is an army commander in Aram, just to the north of Israel. An Israelite girl who has been captured in war becomes a servant of his wife and tells her about the healing qualities of Elisha, the prophet who succeeded Elijah. Naaman expects some elaborate ritual but is told to wash in the small and unimpressive Jordan [5:1-12]. Naaman is insulted by this and refuses Elisha’s directives. The message: Heeding the word of God is always key to any spiritual transformation. Naaman's servants encourage him to try this remedy; he does and is healed. He professes his solemn belief in God and wants to thank Elisha with great gifts. The prophet refuses. Realizing the power and mercy of the God of Israel, Naaman asks for two carts of soil which will form his own, tiny holy space to worship God. He believes that the power of a god is limited to a certain place, a particular territory. There are holy places. God uses all avenues to show His love. More than Naaman's flesh, his heart is also healed. Do we allow God to heal us and come to us? How do we express our gratitude?

Paul continues to encourage Timothy to stand firm in his teaching of the true Christian doctrine, whose core is the Resurrection of Christ which is the promise of resurrection for all who believe. People will suffer, but so did Jesus — which leads us to understand God’s love. Christ is always faithful to His Father’s saving plan, even if others prove unfaithful. How am I doing?

The people of Jesus’ time live in fear of leprosy and of ritual uncleanness, as those suffering from the infection are not permitted to mingle with others. The lepers in the Gospel come to Jesus before He enters the village. Jesus heals them and tells them to go and see the priests to fulfill the legal demand that they be certified as “clean” by the priests. Yet only one returns. Jesus’ response tells us that there is more to salvation, which means responding to God’s graciousness and love. The lesson is, Be Grateful!

God acts as God wants to act and His ways are best. So the challenge today is for each of us to try and be grateful in a few ways: First, be grateful for all the wonderful things our God has done for us. These are our “little miracles” from God that strengthen our faith. Next, be grateful for the precious gift of faith and for the good things God will do for us in the future — because we simply trust and hope in His promises. He does love us that much.

So I reflect on:

• What can I do this week to care for the earth and being grateful for the gift of creation?
• God promised to be with Naaham and to bless his descendants. I take time to reflect on and thank God for the people He has given me and who have led me to where I am now and who have prepared me to be with God forever in heaven.
  

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“The healed man finds it in his heart to praise God. His first words had been words of trustful petition: petition and thanks are fundamental movements of prayer. We engage one or the other, sometimes both. Asking for what we want, giving praise for what we are grateful for — these are the essentials of prayer.”