Sunday, October 13, 2013
28th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 2 K 5:14-17
Second Reading:
2 Tim 2:8-13
Gospel Reading:
Lk 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village, ten lepers came to meet him. Keeping their distance, they called to him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Then Jesus said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Now, as they went their way, they found they 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 his face before Jesus, he gave him thanks. This man was a Samaritan.
Then Jesus said, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God but this alien?” And Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Gratitude is more pleasing to the Lord if immediate. Consider how one leper who wasted no time to show gratitude for his healing found favor with Jesus, his healer. When thanksgiving is withheld, it can ferment to indifference. With the passing of time it can even evolve into a scheme of manipulation employed to extract more from the benefactor. Urgency is vital to the preservation of gratitude’s genuineness. St. Ambrose expressed the same idea when he said: “There is no duty more urgent than giving thanks”.
Gratitude is the memory of the heart, wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu. We hasten to add, however, that being the memory of the heart doesn’t render gratitude unpredictable like most feelings. If there is any logic to how languages evolve, the similarity in sound of ’think’ and ’thank’ (’denke’ and ’danke’ in German) points to something common to both. It is really hard for one to thank if he does not think of what others have done to him. Gratitude then is not just the memory of the heart but the spontaneity of the mind heavy with an inventory of favors from well-meaning people. It is not an unstable feeling of the heart but an enduring disposition cultivated by the intellect. From this cultivation sprout the seeds of goodwill, loyalty and reciprocity.
A third reason why the Lord is pleased with gratitude more so if prompt is the humility involved. A proud person thinks that receiving favors from others is a matter of right. The more people do a good turn to a proud person, the more that proud person bloats in megalomaniac ego-tripping in the belief that people derive pleasure from paying tribute to his greatness.
Timeliness brings out the best in gratitude. — Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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