Gratitude and Grace

Of course, it's not hard to see that today's word is gratitude.

Seems to be a simple virtue to name. What is gratitude is to be thankful.

Yet it seems like it's a hard one to live out.

We teach this to children all the time. I mean, I see it, you know,

in the narthex especially,

when you bring a child and ask for a blessing for their birthday,

for example, or you ask for a rosary to be blessed or a medallion or anything,

or even the stamp, you know, the children like the stamps.

And then you say to them, what? Say, thank you.

And so they say, thank you, right? They usually make already a step away from

me, but then they just kind of come back and like, thank you.

So that's how you teach children.

But somewhere along the way, we adults forget.

We forget we forget

that we receive things from god um

later on in life we call it luck or

we call it hard work we look at

ourselves and say well i'm disciplined i worked hard i was better than others

at work and i did it i did it that's the problem um that's the problem that

is shown in today's Gospel that we forget that Jesus,

God, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit are those who initiate

good things by invisible grace.

Remember that, like Jesus said, the sun rises over the good and over the bad.

The same with rain, right? It's all, we all receive something.

And so the fact that you are in church today is God's grace.

First, he initiated, right? He invited you with a special grace and you responded.

But that was also his grace to respond properly so you didn't waste it.

It's hard for us sometimes to kneel and say, thank you, Lord.

Today's readings place before us the stories of Naaman, the Syrian,

and the ten lepers, all foreigners, as Jesus mentions.

God's grace is freely given, but not always gratefully received.

Naaman was not an Israelite, right? So he was a foreigner to the Israelites.

He was a commander, he was an important person, a man of power and influence,

afflicted by leprosy, a disease that strips away dignity.

It's one of the most difficult diseases probably to face.

He comes to Elisha seeking healing, and Prophet's command was almost insulting

to him in its simplicity because he only said to him, go and bathe seven times in the Jordan.

And what did Naaman say or think to himself?

Aren't there better rivers where I come from?

Right, that is, of course, again, what we do.

Oftentimes people will come to a priest, and trust me, it's so difficult.

When people come to a priest, to me, for example, or other priests,

but I tell you what I see, with issues, problems, family problems,

their own sinfulness issues, and I know the answer.

Um it comes with experience but also with spiritual insight and just kind of,

you know the problem is the answer is so simple that i just like almost hesitate to say it,

because it almost seems ridiculous and when i say it i'm just like they're gonna

think i'm crazy right this is like but that's the same situation sometimes the

answer to your issue is what a daily rosary.

When I say that to you, you'll be like, he's crazy. A daily rosary is going to fix all my issues.

Well, if you have faith, if you're humble enough, yes, if you will find in yourself

a little bit of humility of Naaman, you will believe.

Or I'll say, go to adoration once a week for one hour.

Oh, that's nice, Father. It's very pious, but it's not going to fix all my issues

it will if you believe it go to confession right it will fix some of your issues regularly,

and on and on remember father jim ovid right i had said that before to you when

he came to confession after the first 16 years i said very simple things to

him and and he later complained he's like man i thought it was going to be like

more and i'm like you were not ready for more.

You are not ready for more you need

to start somewhere the same here

that's why obedience and humility is everything

in God's eyes and that's why he rewards though who become humble so Naaman eventually

says like well to whatever right what am I to lose right I'm already a leper

so he goes and bathes himself according to the wish of Elisha and he's what

his skin becomes like that of a child,

beautiful and delicate.

But not only his skin was healed, his heart was healed, which is more important, right?

Physical disease healed is nice, but when your heart is transformed,

when you come out of illness a different person, then wow, that's even better.

So he returns to Elisha and says what?

Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.

That's a great change. So his gratitude is not just being polite. Thank you.

And here is a sack of gold, but it's life changing.

Here is a sack of gold, but also my heart is changed.

He didn't merely thank God with words. He changed his direction,

his worship, and his allegiance.

Guys, if you're grateful every day for little things to God,

your day, every day, becomes worship of God because you're thankful to God.

You don't look at yourself all the time and say, well, I am the source of all goodness.

And sometimes it looks ridiculous. The only one who can say that to you is usually your spouse.

Will look at you and say, like, don't be so full of yourself because you're

not the source of all goodness.

I'm glad you work hard, but there is God above you.

Gratitude every day is like a continual worship.

And so Naaman becomes a convert.

Centuries later, we have the ten lepers standing at a distance and crying out,

Jesus' master have pity on us.

Ten of them. Ten like Naaman.

They too are healed. All of them. And you know, notice what they do.

Jesus doesn't do in a miraculous healing.

He says to them what? Go and show yourself to the priest. Almost like dismissive

way. So they turn around and go.

And as they are going, meaning as they are doing the kind of simple thing again,

with faith, everything changes. They're all healed.

But only one turned back, and he was a Samaritan. It's emphasized that,

again, he was not the pious Israelite.

So he realized what happened. He returned, glorifying God in a loud voice.

He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.

Now, this is not only to you. This gospel, the readings are also to us priests.

We sometimes are the most ungrateful.

We have this privilege in a sense life, right? Some of you, when you want to

pray, you have to get up before your children get up.

That means sometimes an hour earlier than everybody else.

Now, no matter what time I wake up in my house, it's quiet.

There's nobody there. So I'm in a sense privileged here. I can wake up at 9,

which I never do. Of course, when you turn 40, right?

You want to sleep longer, but it's not going to happen. So 6, right?

It's quiet, so you can pray.

But we priests can be so ungrateful. I remember

when I was newly ordained and I was hanging out with some priests and

you know I wanted to be a priest so I can celebrate mass you know glorify God

all of those things like I thought that that was a common theme right so we

go out and it's a day off and so I say when are we going to celebrate mass because

I brought my mass kit my clothes you know, for mass.

And they look at me and they say, oh, it's a day off.

And I'm like, excuse me?

Like, what do you mean is a day off? Like, you've been given ordination. I.

That's how quickly we forget and we

are not immune from it right we we stop

praying we think some priests we think that we the public

prayer is our prayer right what about your private prayer what about your private

effort that's how quickly we forget just like the nine that didn't come back

to jesus they received the miracle but only one received the change of heart and salvation,

So the difference was not in the power that was given to them,

but in the attitude of the heart, posture of the heart.

And so their attitude or Jesus' question, which is a piercing question,

we're not ten made clean, where are the other nine?

This question echoes throughout centuries and it comes to us because where are the other nine?

When Sunday comes and the pews in the church are half empty,

Though the blessings of the week were full, where are the nine?

When prayers are answered, when diseases are cured, when relationships are restored,

and jobs are found, but few return to Mass to say, Thank you, where are the nine?

When families celebrate weddings and graduations and promotions,

but forget the altar of the Holy Mass from which all good things come, where are the nine?

When priests receive a privileged lifestyle, sometimes having great parishes,

great assignments, great people, but don't pray anymore outside of Mass and

other things and live like as if it was just all good, where are the nine?

We think we deserve health, comfort, and success and peace. Why?

Because gratitude in our times has been replaced by entitlement.

And so when we receive things, we often credit our own effort.

Or we call it good fortune.

Or when someone says, God blessed you, what do people say who are angry with God?

When you say to them, God blessed you, they say, well, where was God when I

did this? Where was God when I did this? Where was God?

This is not, it's all me. No, it's not.

Ingratitude blinds us. That's why, parents, it's so important that we train

children and teach them from the beginning that they never forget,

especially when they become teenagers and go to college.

Please remind them, hold them accountable that they know how to say thank you

to God, because I think that's when the transition takes place and then in successful professional life.

So the only one that comes back is the one who

is a foreigner and to only this one jesus says

get up your faith has

saved you gratitude is

not just a response to grace it's a recognition of grace itself so if we have

problems with gratitude how do we recover from it well saint paul says to us

just to remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. So be.

Deliberate about your thanks. You know, one of the greatest things you can do

is, of course, when you receive communion is to stay.

Sometimes, unfortunately, I see... So in the narthex, once I was there because

I was not here, I was in the sacristy, and I came out, and then I regret it.

Because it's communion time, and I see somebody standing and just scrolling through the phone.

I'm thinking, what is the phone even doing here in the church?

First question. Second, where is gratitude towards Jesus?

You receive communion and you get on your phone?

Something wrong with that. Your gratitude, you know, extra five minutes of prayer,

you know, sometimes our communion can be longer.

But do you realize that this is an extra five minutes given to you to pray that

you will not have during the week.

You will long for that five minutes. You'll be so busy and you'll be wishing

you had the five minutes that you had on Sunday. It's not going to be there, so take it.

When you receive communion, go to the pew and say, Lord, welcome to my heart.

And then speak to Jesus about the state of your heart, the week, everything you want.

Thank God every day for everything that has taken place in your life thank God

for receiving communion,

for the sacraments for the priests thank him in your suffering for the strength

that holds you steady for the

cross that unites you to Christ's own love thank your God for your spouse.

And if it's difficult, then ask the Lord to help you recognize the goodness in the other person.

Thank for your family. Don't ever forget the gift of your family.

But above all, always return to Jesus. Look how sensitive he was towards that.

We would say, well, why would he care? He's God.

And yet he cared. He asked the question, where are the other nine?

So we come to Jesus and we say, Lord, we have not forgotten you.

We have not forgotten everything you've done for us. We are grateful and we are yours.

So every day when we come to Mass, every Sunday, but really every day,

we become like this one Samaritan who came back.

We follow the feet of Jesus. We glorify God in a loud voice because every,

well, because the Eucharist, the word, you know what it means,

right? It means a thanksgiving.

So the Mass is our great act of gratitude. There is no greater act of thanks.

That's why it's so important to have masses said when you have anniversaries,

baby born, graduations, because you want to say thanks to God.

But when you have mass said is the greatest act of thanksgiving because Jesus

cannot do anything more for us.

He cannot be undone in his generosity. He died for us.

So here we remember that all 10 lepers were healed, but only one return.

So as we approach the altar today, let us be that one.

Let us return not just with words, but with hearts full of faith and thanksgiving.

And may Christ, who still journeys throughout our lives, as he once journeyed

through Samaria and Galilee, look upon us and say, with joy rather than with

sorrow, stand up and go, your faith has saved you.