Luke 17:11 – 19
In my family we were taught from
infancy to say thank you whenever we received anything, and you
probably were as well. It got to be second nature, and could be said
without actually thinking. When you move around among people
similarly trained, you don't notice the thank-yous; but when someone
doesn't say thank you for something obvious, it's very noticeable.
To me the story of the ten lepers is
puzzling for that reason. Nine did not return to give thanks. Nine
lepers had been spared an agonizing and slow death. They who had had
to avoid healthy people, even members of their own families, could
now return to them. Their hearts should have been overwhelmed with
gratitude. After all, they had cried out in desperation to Jesus,
probably having heard that he could heal people, and they had obeyed
him when he told them to go and show themselves to the priests. I
don't know how far they had gone when they realized they were healed,
but it couldn't have been very far; the whole story seems to unfold
in a short time.
Why did the nine not return? You can
think of some possible reasons. Maybe they were so overwhelmed at
their good fortune that they wanted to rush home to their families
and couldn't wait. Maybe they were angry with God for all the time
they had been lepers, and didn't feel grateful; they felt like it was
about time God intervened. Or perhaps they felt like the miracle
came from somewhere else; after all, all Jesus did was tell them to
go show themselves to the priests. He didn't order the leprosy to
leave their bodies; he didn't lay hands on them, he didn't do
anything that they could see. Or maybe they were just ungrateful
people. But nine out of ten did not return.
One thing we learn from this episode
in Jesus' life is that God expects us to have grateful hearts. Jesus
himself often thanked the Father for events in his own life; even
though he is God, he noticed when something good was happening and
thanked the Father, who is the source of all that is good. And that
should be our default as well – to give thanks.
God doesn't need us to thank him. He
pours out his blessings on saints and sinners alike. We don't hurt
his feelings when we don't thank him. But like everything God wants
from us, he wants us to be grateful precisely because it moves us in
the right direction – towards him.
And I have a ways to go in the
gratitude department myself. I don't remember to thank God for the
constant blessings that come into my life – my health, my wife, my
family, the fact that I live in a warm house and eat well and have a
little extra to help out my grandchildren – there is so much I
should be thankful for, and I should be thanking God for. And I
don't, not as much as I should. And there are times when I am like
those nine lepers and my interior attitude is “what have you done
for me lately, God?” Or “there are a lot of things you could be
doing, God, to make my life better; why don't you?'
But one thing we forget is that we
should thank God for the bad things that happen as well. That's what
I like about the stories of the martyrs. The martyrs of Korea sang
hymns and encouraged each other with cheers as they hung upon their
crosses. One martyr in China was kept in a bamboo cage and taken out
and tortured every day. He could have stopped everything if he would
have trampled on a crucifix. Instead he would sing a song of
gratitude when he was returned to his cage. Saint John Jones of
Wales was sentenced to be executed by hanging. At the scene of the
execution the hangman could not find any rope. During the hour that
he was looking for rope, Saint John Jones thanked God that he had
another hour to preach the gospel to the people who had turned out to
watch. \ A lot of the martyrs recognized the truth of what Saint
James said: “Every good thing comes from God.” And Jesus
promised over and over again that Our Father would not give us bad
things; and that nothing happens without God permitting it; and God
loves us with an uncompromising, infinite love. And that means that
even when we are burning at stake, hanging from a cross, about to be
beheaded, or rotting away in a prison somewhere, God is behind this
and God wants us to go through this precisely because he loves us and
somehow what we are going through will make it more likely that we
will enter into union with God, that we will enter eternal life.
Granted, it's really hard to thank God
for something devastating, like being diagnosed with cancer, or
learning that you have Alzheimer's disease. It's hard to see that
being fired from your job or having a child of yours leave the faith
may be part of God's plan for your salvation. But if we keep those
principles in mind, principles taught by Jesus himself, that God
loves us, that nothing happens without God;s permission, that because
He loves us he wants us with Him for all eternity, that he is all
powerful and all knowing.
How do we thank God for catastrophe?
It starts with developing a grateful heart. We practice gratitude by
making it a point to reflect on the past. How often were there times
when we dreaded what we were about to go through, and after the
event, we realized that the outcome was good in the long run. And
then we thank God for that. Once we begin to glimpse, however dimly,
how God has worked in our lives, we have gratitude.
Gratitude is recognition of God's
involvement in our lives. God wants us to be grateful because the
more we recognize God's good work in our lives, the more we desire to
respond to his love for us. Louis Martin, the father of Saint
Therese of Liseaux, himself a saint, told his priest that he was
concerned that he had had a wonderful life, and very little
suffering, and how could he ever hope to become a saint without some
suffering. A short time later he had the first of many strokes that
lead to helplessness and the loss of his mental facilities. And he
thanked God for that, and according to the Catholic Church he is
enjoying the company of the saints for all eternity.
