November 11, 2015Wednesday, 32nd Week in Ordinary Time 1st reading: Wisdom 6:1-11
Gospel: Lk 17:11–19
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along the borderbetween Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village, ten leperscame to meet him. Keeping their distance, they called to him,
“Jesus,Master, have pity on us!” Then Jesus said to them, “Go and showyourselves to the priests.” Now, as they went their way, they foundthey were cured. One of them, as soon as he saw he was cleansed,turned back praising God in a loud voice, and throwing himself on hisface before Jesus, he gave him thanks. This man was a Samaritan.Then Jesus said, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the othernine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God but thisalien?” And Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go your way; your faithhas saved you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
“Gratitude is the memory of the heart”, wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu inhis work entitled “Letter to Abbe Sicard”. Consider how skillfully Sicard put together the words “memory” and “heart” though both are poles apart. Memory is generally associated with intellection while the heart with feelings and sensation. Yet Sicard is saying that the heart has a memory. In so saying he comes close to the Old Anglo Saxon concept of thinking (an act of the intellect) as the other side of thanking (an act normally ascribed to the heart).One cannot thank if he does not think. The deeper one’s reflection about the good received, the more intense the gratitude he feels for the benefactor. The Jews frowned upon the Samaritans as outside the embrace of God’s graciousness for being unclean. It’s baffling how they arrived at a connection between spiritual uncleanness and physical and even mechanical acts like touching a leper. Under this mentality, the lone Samaritan in the group of ten lepers in today’s Gospel was twice unclean. Reflecting on his social status, and thinking about how underserving he was of the healing he received, he returned to thank Jesus. In reaction
But not all who think end up thanking. Proud people think a lot but they thank very little. They are so self-centered that they think others are duty-bound to do good to them. The nine other lepers probablythought they deserved the healing because as Jews they belonged to the chosen people of God. The Samaritan leper, on the other hand, was aware of his unworthiness and so felt so much gratitude. “Gratitude”, wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu, “is the memory of the heart”. This memory is sharpest when the heart is humble. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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