While in town to pick up some supplies, a farmer stopped at a local café to have a bite to eat. He sat down near a group of rowdy young men who were acting up, shouting at the cook and heckling the waitress. When his meal was set before him, the farmer bowed his head in prayer. One of the smart alecks then shouted loudly enough to be heard by everyone else, “Hey pop, does everyone do that where you come from?” Calmly, the farmer turned to the lad and in an equally loud voice, replied, “No son, the pigs don’t.”
Nor did nine certain lepers. Naaman, a Syrian general afflicted with leprosy, and the Samaritan, the only one of the ten lepers cured by Jesus to return and give thanks for being healed, are both obviously very grateful for the miracle.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran minister who died in a Nazi Concentration camp, once observed, “In ordinary life we hardly recognize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison to what we owe others.”
The indifference of the nine lepers isn’t so unusual. How often have we done the same thing? As this gospel story suggests, not all of us really go out of our way to express our gratitude, especially to God for all that we have been given.
Quite likely, the nine ungrateful lepers did appreciate what Jesus did for them. Why they didn’t return to offer him thanks is anyone’s guess, but what was evident to Jesus was the cure did not touch their hearts. The Samaritan, on the other hand, had a conversion experience. Once he realized that he had been healed, he returned, glorifying God in a loud voice. He humbled himself before Jesus, thanking him for making him whole again.
In ancient times, leprosy was a disease with a stigma. If you had leprosy or another dire skin disease, you were alienated from your community and you had to warn others, “Unclean, unclean!” What happened to lepers happens to us when we commit a grave sin. When we sin, our conscience leaves us feeling unclean before God. Like the leper, a sinner, weak and burdened with guilt, may feel hopeless before God for only God can deliver lepers and sinners from their plight.
When we alienate ourselves from God by committing a grave sin, we aren’t allowed to fully participate in the liturgy. When we can’t receive communion, we feel cut off from God and like the lepers, we cry out, “Jesus! Have pity on us!”
And when we do, Jesus would tell us, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” In biblical times, by certifying that a leper had been cured, priests gave the now healed leper permission to return home to the community. Likewise, going to a priest and receiving absolution for our grave sins through the sacrament of reconciliation restores us to full membership in the Church. Now forgiven, we are again in full communion with the body of Christ. Unfortunately, pride gets in the way for some of us sinners, just as it did for Naaman, from seeing the wisdom of what God offers in this sacrament.
Our primary manner of worship has always been the Mass, known also as the Eucharist, which in Greek means thanksgiving. The Mass is our ideal chance to thank God for all that we have been given: life, love, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy, along with the material goods that keep us alive.
Like the nine lepers who didn’t voice their gratitude for being healed, many of the baptized do not appear to be so grateful even though God has generously blessed them. Statistics reveal that the largest religion in our country is Catholic and the second largest are fallen away Catholics.
We tend to take God for granted, including God’s gift of salvation. Despite the caution voiced by Paul in his letter to Timothy that God will deny us if we deny him, we don’t really think that our sinfulness could cause us to forfeit his gift of eternal life. Instead, we presume that God “will understand.”
When God does come to mind, we are likely to be asking a favor or demanding something. Give us this or that; heal someone who is ill, bring us peace, save this marriage, perform a miracle. Sometimes our prayers are made with little expectation of success but when our pleas are heard, is our faith impacted or like the nine lepers, do we remain unchanged on the inside?
I recall that in the days following 9/11, churches across our nation were filled with many seeking solace, comfort and assurances. In turn, we were told, “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you.” Following his words of absolution, a priest says in effect those same words. Faith is what always pulls us through our most difficult times but faith is not a gift to be taken for granted. Faith demands a right relationship with God. Like any plant, faith must be cared for. We nurture our faith best through reconciliation, prayer, and the Eucharist.
In his unconditional love, Jesus doesn’t need our gratitude any more than he needed the spoken gratitude of the nine lepers, but he knew they needed to be grateful, and so must we if our faith is to remain vibrant. So long as we remain grateful, we will never deny God nor take for granted what God has given us, especially his gift of salvation.