Thanksgiving Day Mass
Today’s gospel reading (Luke 17: 11-19) for Thanksgiving Day mass is The Healing of the Ten Lepers. It is a very familiar story, which, as a result, can cause us to skim over it quickly and not reflect deeply. I encourage you to read it again and take a closer look at it today on this day of giving thanks.
“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.” (vs 15, 16) Only one of the ten lepers returned to thank Jesus, and he was a Samaritan.
I find that it’s easy to identify with this Samaritan leper who was thoughtful enough to go back and thank Jesus for healing him. And I find myself quick to judge the other nine, asking along with Jesus, “Where are the other nine? Weren’t ten healed?” But this is more than just a matter of having good manners. When I really reflect on this gospel reading, I think maybe I’m not always like the Samaritan leper. I have to ask myself, how many times have I prayed and pleaded with God for help in some area, for healing for myself or someone else, only to later forget to return to God in a prayer of thanksgiving.
Or, I wonder, how often have I made my request, asked for help or healing and then, going on my way, have not even realized that my prayer has been answered. Notice the passage, “one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned…”
When I don’t take the time to regularly reflect, pray, sit in the quiet presence of God, I may not even realize the ways in which Jesus is touching and healing my life. Sometimes, healing occurs gradually and not in what we may think of as miraculous ways. How important it is to stop and reflect, to realize how Jesus is touching our lives. Only then can we return to God in prayerful thanksgiving.
And there is even more to the story. This recounting of the healing of the lepers to Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries is significant in that Jesus was holding up a non-Jew as an example to them. They would likely have looked down upon a Samaritan, and here Jesus is pointing out that the Samaritan is the only one who returned, and it is the Samaritan’s faith that saved him. Jesus is calling his listeners to greater humility.
If we’re open, might we find an example of faith in people we don’t expect it from? Are we willing to learn from people who aren’t like us? People that we may have judged as less than us or even unworthy of Jesus? This gospel reading reminds us that Jesus came to heal all people, even people of different cultures and religions than ours.
Am I paying attention to how Jesus is touching my life? Do I have the faith to believe that healing is taking place? Returning to God in thanksgiving is also an act of faith and humility. It means acknowledging God’s goodness and work in our lives. Let us pray for that awareness, faith and humility.
And on this day that is set aside for giving thanks, let us, as in today's first reading, thank and “bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth.” (Sirach 50: 22)
-Eileen Miller