28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

          

This Sunday, the 28th of Ordinary Time, the Lord asks us the following questions and challenges us to their corresponding answers to our personal missions.  Here are our questions: am I a person who knows how to give thanks; do I know how to give back goodness for goodness received; do I remember the goodness done to me and do I remember to thank from my heart?

          The theme of thanksgiving pervades the Readings this Sunday.  In the First Reading, from the Second Book of Kings, Chapter Five, we heard of the story of Naaman and how he, a Syrian, alone among all the Israelites who were suffering from leprosy during the time of Elisha, was the only one healed by Yahweh.  He declares with his heart full of thanksgiving: "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant."  His thanking heart prompted him to give back in some way what he has received.  In Psalm 98 the Psalmist exclaimed: “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”  His thanking heart leads him to recognize in God his Savior and no other.  In the Second Reading, St. Paul in his Second Letter to Timothy, Chapter Two, we heard how St. Paul proclaimed all the graces of God to him and that his actual imprisonment was a small exchange to make for all these blessings.  His imprisonment was his thanksgiving.  And when we come to the Gospel, we heard of the story about Jesus and the ten lepers.  He healed them all, but only one came back to say thank you, and he a Samaritan, traditional enemy of a Jew, as Jesus was.  Of the ten only one came back, and Jesus looked for the nine.  He was not seeking recognition but he was looking for their hearts.  They must have forgotten for they did not come back.  In their joy they have forgotten the source and cause of their joy and we might here imagine that they were so engrossed in their celebrations perhaps with their loved ones that Him who loved them first and healed them lovingly they forgot.  Indeed thanksgiving is the memory of the heart.

          The English word thanks, same with the German danken, comes from the Old Germanic thankojan which has the same root word as think.  To thank is related to to think.  We say thanks when we think of the cause of our thanksgiving.  We give thanks when we remember.  The Tagalog salamat, used also in Bicol, comes from the Arabic salaam which means soundness and integrity, which in turn traces its roots from the Hebrew shalom which means peace.  The Hebrew and Arabic usage is for greetings while the Tagalog and Bicol usages refer to giving thanks.  Thanksgiving is also a sort of wishing well, giving back to the person who shared goodness to us, much to the same effect of the Italian grazie or the Spanish gracias.  I give back to you the grace you have given me.

          From these biblical and etymological considerations we may now go back to our questions for personal reflections: am I a person who knows how to give thanks; do I know how to give back goodness for goodness received; do I remember the goodness done to me and do I remember to thank from my heart?

          Sisters and brothers let us end this reflection with some practical considerations.  Firstly, let us cherish the memory of the good done to us.  It is in remembering that we give thanks for when we forget we fail to thank the persons who helped us.  As we heard from the story of the Samaritan leper, to remember is to thank.  Let us remember all the goodness done to us by our parents, relatives, friends and benefactors.  Let us remember all the good God did and is doing to us.  Secondly, let us give back what we have received.  A thankful heart does not rest until it pays it forward, to the same benefactor or to another who is in need.  As we heard from the story of Naaman, to give back is to thank.  Thirdly and lastly, a thanking heart is a happy heart.  Indeed it is rare to see a person being thanked as sad and depressed and it is even rarer to see a person giving thanks as morose and melancholic.  When we are thanked we are happy and while we are giving thanks we too are happy and often times are smiling.

          O Lord, grant me a heart that remembers, a heart that gives back and a happy heart that knows how to thank You and other You sent to pass on to me the graces that can only come from you.  Amen.