Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lk 17:11-19
October 9, 2022

Influenced by my father’s example from many years past, when I am stopped in traffic, I have always (for almost 57 years now) tried to wave any vehicle waiting on my right-hand side out onto the roadway ahead of me. This only takes a few seconds (except on those occasions when giving up the “right of way” means the guy sails through the caution light while I end up sitting through the red). So, there can be consequences to this simple act of kindness. But, even then, it is worth it…or can be!

Observing my dad’s patience and courtesy to the guy on his right, I was rarely disappointed by the exchange. Even in the days of crank-down windows, it almost never failed. An arm would jut out with a “wave of appreciation” as the car pulled ahead of us into the line of traffic. Easier today with power windows, but back then, the gesture of gratitude took more time and effort than Dad’s sign to “go ahead of me!”
I would look for it, and it almost always came in response to my dad’s thoughtfulness.

I loved the contact…the human interaction…the pleasant exchange between perfect strangers. Although I was just a kid, I recognized something important about those few seconds.

Maybe what I saw in it was opportunity. Here was an opportunity for my dad to be gracious…and for the beneficiary to be grateful. So, it has become a lifelong driving habit for me. I almost always take these opportunities to be gracious.

The thing is, in recent years, fewer and fewer people are taking the opportunity to be grateful. More often than not, the person simply wheels out of the parking lot ahead of me, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on a cell phone, speeding away without so much as a look back. It’s as if the sense of entitlement has overpowered the sense of gratitude.

It makes me wonder if we are at risk of losing something that is really part of, and basic to, our human nature. I wonder if we are forgetting how to be grateful?

But then we are presented with today’s Gospel. From the manner in which nine of the ten lepers responded to the healing miracle, it would appear that ingratitude is “nothing new.”

What we have here is something so far beyond mere courtesy that it is staggering. When the first sign of the dreaded disease appeared on their skin, lepers were totally excluded from the community.

The disease not only meant inescapable pain, suffering, and imminent death, but it also brought with it total exclusion from the community. Lepers were completely isolated.

What we see in this contact…this interaction between God and those in need of a special favor from God…is not only a miraculous physical healing, but also a complete restoration of the afflicted to family, friends, and community. In a way, Jesus signaled these poor people, stranded on the “sidelines of life,” inviting them to “GO AHEAD OF ME!”

So, they wheeled back into the flow of the living. Amazingly, only one took advantage of the opportunity to express gratitude.

British philosopher and theologian G.K. Chesterton once wrote: When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

Elsewhere, he wrote: I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

Jesus’s reaction to the solitary “thank you” makes a definite connection between faith and gratitude. I wonder if we might build off Chesterton’s wisdom and consider that…when it comes to faith, a critical thing is whether you take things for granted…like the 9… or with gratitude…like the Samaritan.

Wouldn’t that suggest that “gratitude to God for the many blessings we enjoy each day” is an expression of faith…and enables one to be doubly blessed?

It all comes down to this.

If we are influenced by the example of the sole person who Jesus healed…our faith will save us.

P.S. “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving.” The perfect way to roll down the window and signal our gratitude to The Lord as we pull out ahead of Him into traffic…is join the community for Eucharist.